I've had an interesting morning. Around 10 AM, I heard a TON of sirens race behind our backyard. It's not surprising to hear some sirens daily since there is a police department, EMS station & fire department farther down the road that parallels my backyard, but I heard an incredible number, maybe 20, 25 different emergency vehicles in under half an hour. My power started flickering on and off. I thought it was probably a very bad traffic accident affecting the power line (it happens from time to time). It ended up that a pipeline exploded and was burning. (This area is full of pipelines & chemical plants.) The flames from the line were huge, like 300-400 yd high. Luckily, the pipeline isn't near enough to my house to worry about fire (though goodness knows about the air quailty, they haven't even said what chemical is burning. You can see the smoke and flames from my front yard. It's still burning, I guess it's been 3 hr. now. Thankfully my power is now back on.

That was a bit out of the ordinary, to be sure.

Before all this, I jogged & walked, showered, had breakfast, did laundry, now we've just had lunch, and I need to do the dishes. Probably will just read today and watch the coverage of this on the local news until the fire gets put out. Otherwise, my mood is better now that the power is back on. The high today is 95F and the humidity 75%, so it's pretty miserable without power.