Hell's A Poppin'! Big Time!!!!!!!

I'm not even sure what "Hell's A Poppin' " means but that's how things seem to be around our apartment these days.

Hans is very busy trying to finalize the details for our trip to Germany this May for The Wedding of the Year, all the while trying to make sure all the work that needs to be accomplished on our boat gets done.

Our main sail is being repaired, the canvas people are whipping up a bimini (complete with a proper frame) to replace our red-neck awning, a new bank of batteries will be installed, and our Knotty Cat's bottom is being sandblasted to make way for the coat of barrier paint that we discovered she never had!
If anyone thinks living on a boat is cheap; it's not, it's just a house on the water, that's all!

Hans is also getting us a new cell phone plan and it literally took an entire day of phone calls to make a final decision.

As if things aren't heating up enough around here, we had a huge house fire right up the street from us last night.

We drove past just as the fire companies arrived and we could see black smoke rolling out of the garage doors on the lower part of the building. The houses on that block are built into the hill, with their garages being the lower level and then continuing into three story homes. Here are the firefighters on their ladders waaaay up in the air.

A little bit closer.

We had gone out to eat at a restaurant a couple of miles away and you could see the smoke from there.

Two hours later we came back by and the place was fully engulfed in flames. Two hours!! This was only one house so I can't even imagine how awful an even bigger fire would be.

I know it seems like we must be a couple of rubber neckers, but we didn't stop with our car, we walked back and stayed far out of the way.

Here's a video. Look at all that water! Today the smell of smoke is still very heavy in the air. Luckily no one was home at the time, and no firefighters were hurt.

Remember this little fellow?

Well holy cow, check this out!

He's coming along very nicely (look how much he's grown!) and Vet Tech Girl brought him for a visit to our apartment last night.
He's getting passed around to anyone at the clinic who will take care of him and it was her turn on the dog sitting rotation.
She brought him in and he waddled over to me, stuck his muzzle in my neck, and grunted. I laughed and said he sounded just like a pig.
"That's why his name is Wilbur," she said. "Like the pig from Charlotte's Web."
This is because in addition to the smashed orbital bone and lacerations of the face and ear, his throat and sinus cavities were damaged and he can't bark properly so he grunts. He also snores very loudly!! I found this out when he decided he'd had enough of us and fell fast asleep underneath my sewing table.

But sadly, no one wants him.

How can that be?