Two serious fires in Calgary on Saturday

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17th Ave SW, Alberta, Calgary, Canada, coffee klatsch, community, Diana Schwenk, fire, Hump Day Chronicles, walk

On Saturday I walked down to the Scotia Centre on Stephen Avenue to meet my friend Helga for coffee. On 4th Street, just before the 9th Avenue overpass, I entered into, what I assumed to be, a huge dust cloud.

It was a windy day, so I surmised the dirt from the construction site on my left was getting caught up by the wind and blown over the street.

Other than that, it was a gorgeous, sunny day, so after our little coffee klatsch, Helga and I  walked east on Stephen Avenue.

That’s when Helga noticed it. A plume of smoke was rising in the south. We decided to check it out.

As soon as we turned south onto McLeod Trail, we knew something was up. All four lanes of the one-way street were backed up with traffic – it was a parking lot!

“Man, am I ever glad we’re not in a car,” I mumbled.

When we hit 17th Avenue, we could finally see the source of the fire. A 48-unit condo, still under construction, was engulfed in flames.

Onlookers watched and snapped photos.

“I bet the working crew left the lights on,” said a gruff looking man to Helga. “I’ve seen that start fires at construction sites many a time.”

“I was on Scotsman Hill shooting photos when I saw the fire, so I came down to check it out,” said another man. “I think the propane tanks they use while tarring the roof exploded.”

Later that day, while watching the news,  I learned that the apartment building next door had been evacuated after tenants heard a series of explosions.

Last I heard, authorities still don’t know the actual cause of the fire and are asking the public to share any aerial photographs or videos they may have shot.

View from Stephen Avenue.

View from McLeod Trail.

Onlookers watch the fire.

The top floor is completely gutted.

View from 15th Avenue SW.

The smoke was thick and black on 15th Ave.

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

Earlier that same day, just after midnight Alpha House, a refuge for people with alcohol and drug dependencies, evacuated their building when a fire broke out. Sadly one man died.

related articles: Investigators looking to the public for clues in cause of huge condo fire and Man dies in fire at Calgary Alpha House

Got Wheels?

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ancestors, campfire, cavemen, Diana Schwenk, fire, Gratitude, History, humour, Hump Day Chronicles, inventions, mission, Smores, stories, The Wheel, travois, vision

I think we owe a whole lot of gratitude to whoever invented the wheel.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of fire, but no one really invented fire.

Some Neanderthal somewhere, back in the day, was probably caught in a grass fire or saw an old dead tree get struck by lightning and used one of the burning sticks to start the very first campfire. It was just dumb luck – a total fluke!

I do wonder how he brought it home though. Did he make a trail of campfires all the way back to the cave?

And once the fire was burning at the cave, did the clan hire a Keep-the-Fire-Burning technician? And what happened to the KTFB technician if he let the fire go out?

Did it result in banishment? Would he have to scour the land for another lightning storm or grass fire?

Or did he figure out how to start a fire with sticks? Discover flint? Or simply pick up a Bic at the 7-11 on the way to the yearly clan gathering?

And once fires really caught on (Did you catch that clever pun?), did clan women complain that their men were watching fire for hours on end instead of hunting for food?

Did it cause a bunch of collisions because teenagers were running around all willy-nilly with burning sticks, mesmerized by the fire and not paying attention to where they were going?

And once they figured out smoke signals, did they become fat and lazy because they no longer ran to the next cave to deliver messages in person?

Is that when the anti-social trend actually started and face-to-face conversation began its decline?

Anyway, I digress.

“You don’t need wheels when you got legs,” said no one ever!

I want to talk about the GENIUS who invented the wheel. Although fire brought creature comforts like S’mores to the clan, it did not open up a world of possibilities like the wheel did.

Up until the invention of the wheel, travel took a lot longer, demanded a lot more physical strength and if you had to move a lot of stuff, multiple trips were necessary.

Sure the taming of horses and dogs and getting them to drag around a travois was helpful, but still not as magnificent as the wheel.

Yes, the invention of the wheel put our ancestors in motion. The Age of Serious Travel began that day. And unlike the day before, one could now bring more than just their carry-on luggage.

Wagons with two wheels could carry gifts for the tens of new people they would meet on their journey. Travellers could bring all their clothes and save themselves the trouble of finding a river to wash their laundry along the way. Heck they could pretty much bring any little thing their hearts desired!

Yes life was good now, and all thanks to the genius who invented the wheel!

Unlike the so-called Fire Inventor, who we previously established a mere opportunist at best, the Wheel Inventor did not have the benefit of a natural disaster that resulted in wheels dropping into his lap. So how, exactly, did the Wheel Inventor come up with the wheel?

Did it come to him/her in a prophetic dream or vision of a boulder rolling down the side of a mountain and as it did, pieces chipped off and formed a wheel?

Or did it occur to the pimply teenager who collided into clan members while watching his stupid burning stick, as he scrambled to remain balanced like a beachcomber on the rolling beer barrel he was delivering to the ‘successful hunting party’ celebration in the field by the lake?

I guess we’ll never know for sure, but one thing is certain, I think we owe a whole lot of gratitude to whoever invented the wheel!

 ~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

The wheel is the best thing since sliced bread.

But that’s just my opinion, what do you wheely think?

She’s on fire!

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200 words, alone, daughters, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, family, fire, four elements, passion, powerful, Purpose, Tennesse Williams, true to yourself

“We’re all of us sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins, for life! ” ~ Tennessee Williams

I don’t totally agree with this statement but I can see why Tennessee said it. Because when all is said and done, we have to live with the decisions we’ve made and the consequences of those decisions.

If this is true, it becomes even more important to be true to yourself.

Doing things just to please someone else seems silly.

I’m not talking about compromise here. To live successfully in a family or community, negotiating is important and necessary.

I’m referring to life decisions and using your gifts to make the world a better place while remaining true to yourself.

I spent the weekend with my daughter and I asked her which of the four elements she relates to the most. She chose fire.

In her words, fire is powerful, evolving, constant, without limitations. It gives life, warms, does not adhere to rules and creates opportunities.

I see these same amazing qualities in her. I hope she always stays true to them.

I hope she will do what she loves while passionately employing her natural abilities.

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~