THE DAILY DIVERSION

There's always this feeling of relief when you complete something that has been consuming your life for far too long. My work has been the deterrent to my personal life over the last two months. My blog has seen very little action as a result. My readership has dwindled, which I don't blame the people that usually read for that. However, Friday was a very, very odd day.

I made a post that day about the fires, because that was what was consuming my thoughts. However, I finished up my project on Friday also. I was able to get the report finished faster than anyone else prior to me, but without giving up the quality. I did something much more important than that though. I made my bosses very, very happy. That, in and of itself, is a major accomplishment. Everybody is happy when the bosses are happy.

This occurrence has opened up some opportunities for me too. Since I made my bosses happy, they've kind of given me free reign. They let me leave at 2 last Friday and are letting me take a half day off this Friday. Actually, my boss told me "You can do whatever you want to do!" That's a bad idea, Boss, but I like your thinking!

So, I'm just kind of hanging out at work today. I'll probably do that most of this week. I've got one small project to take care of (it's for one of my co-workers) and it'll probably only take me a couple of hours to do. Other than that, I'm in good shape.

Oh, and one last thing...

Have I ever mentioned that I love long weekends? No? Well, now you know.

Maybe I'll come back in a little while and discuss my weekend. I'm a little upset at a certain head football coach right now, and, no, it's not Charlie Weis. We'll get to that later!

Well, I've been up, pretty much, since 4:30 this morning. I was originally woken up by Adrianne coughing, but it was the smell that made me jump out of bed. There are some smells in the world that are unmistakeable. My Mom's lasagna is one of them. Clean sheets straight out of the dryer is another one. However, this wasn't either of those wonderful, unmistakeable smells. This was the smell of something burning. Something big was burning, but I didn't know where.

I, literally, jumped out of bed and started scouring our apartment for anything that might be on fire. The daze of sleep escaped me the moment I smelled the smoke. I was no longer worried about crawling back in bed to catch some more shut-eye before I had to be to work this morning. I was worried about the safetly of my wife, first and foremost, and my safety was an afterthought. I ran around ever corner of our apartment looking for flames or smoke, but found none.

We keep our blinds closed in our apartment, because is keeps the heat out during the day. We keep them closed at night for privacy. After I realized that the smell was not coming from inside our apartment, I decided to look outside. The first, and only, place I looked was at the Goodwyn Building, which is very close to us. I figured the potential for it to be on fire was higher, due to it being in the middle of renovation. The building was fine, so I didn't bother looking anywhere else.

I creeped back toward bed, with the smell still lingering in the air. I just figured it was somewhere else around downtown, but not close enough to make a big deal about. Then my phone rang at 5:40. Mary Jo simply asked me "Are you all watching the Lincoln Tower burn?"

Of course, I jump out of bed again. "What? Are you kidding me?"

"Go look out your window. You should have a good view of it from your place. I'm up on the 14th floor watching it. It's something else."

Adrianne both get out of bed and head to the living room. I pull the blinds completely up and, there, right in my face, is a towering inferno. I'd never before in my life seen a building on fire, live. I've seen it on TV before, just like everyone else, but I've never been so close to something so powerful. It was surreal.

We stood there in awe for who knows how long. Finally, I turned the TV on, just to see what was going on. Apparently a fire started in the basement of The First Methodist Church downtown, at 2nd and Poplar. That building was one of the oldest in downtown. I say was, because it's pretty much gone now. There are still some bricks standing, but it's lost. I think they said it was built in 1893.

However, the church building was a good four blocks away from what I was seeing in front of me. My first thought, prior to hearing the news story, was about a serial arsonist or something. Unfortunately, my brain can sometimes work way too fast and strong. What had happened was some of the embers from the fire at the church got up in the air, and the wind brought them down our way.

When all was said and done, downtown Memphis has lost one of it's oldest churches, two other buildings that are listed on the national historic registry, and one building that we're not sure about yet (Lincoln Tower, it's still burning right now). Three of these building, including the Tower, were in the process of being renovated. From what I hear, they were going to be condos, apartments, various shops, and a grocery store. Here's hoping things will find a way of getting back to normal.

One last comment on this event... From all news reports, all of the buildings were empty, and no people were injured or killed during the events, include the firefighters who did a wonderful job getting everything under control.

Man, it's been a long day for me, already. I can't imagine what those guys feel like, since they've been out there doing it since 2 am, when the church fire supposedly started. I know I don't give thanks much, but I want to give a sincere "THANK YOU" to our Memphis Fire Department. You may have very well saved thousands of lives today by getting the blazes under control. Again, THANK YOU!