Meeting "Pegleg"

Yup, the guy in the song.

a freshly found geocache.

The little French lady(LFL) and I decided to do some geocaching yesterday.  The temperature was just right for it.  Not too hot, not too cold.  We had some errands to run in the south end of Myrtle Beach, so we thought we might as well find a few caches in the area.  

Our first stop was the Myrtle Beach flea market.  We dropped off a bunch of books at Dan's book booth and picked up a few new ones while we were there.  We have brought so many books there that we actually have a credit balance.  It works for Dan and it works for us.  

We checked one of our geocache, located at  the flea market.  The cache is called "One man's treasure", an appropriate name.  It was in excellent condition.  

Then we headed further south to Surfside Beach to find the caches we had noted on our index cards. We found four caches.  For one of them, I crawled under some boardwalk stairs for about fifteen minutes, looking for it.  I was to the point of exhaustion and I was almost wedged underneath when my wife, the above mentioned little French lady, hollered "I found it."  Not anywhere near me.

I told her to sign the log and call 911 to get me out of this spot.  I finally slithered out from the boardwalk.

The next cache we found, we met a nice French Canadian couple.  My wife and the couple chatted for twenty minutes.  I contributed to the conversation by saying all the French I could remember.  In this case it was "pate chinois" which is Shepherd's Pie.   I kept repeating that.  The husband kept calling me "Tony".  He thought all americans were called "Tony".

After that I needed a nap, so the little French lady drove me home.

This morning we had to go to the mall; since Chapin Park was on our route, we decided to find a new cache which had been placed there just a few hours earlier.

When we arrived at the spot of the cache there was a homeless man with an artificial leg standing very close to the spot where the cache should be. Uh..oh!  We will ignore him, if we can.

We ignored him but he didn't ignore us.  "Whatcha lookin for?" he asked.

"A geocache.", the LFL replied.  "What's that?"  We explained what geocaching was and he helped us look for the cache.  The LFL found it after a long search.  The homeless guy was happy for us.

We introduced ourselves to him.  He introduced himself as Mike, but told us everyone calls him "Pegleg Mike".

He had his leg blown off in Vietnam.  He lost two buddies and a leg that day.  He came home to Charlotte, North Carolina and a few years later his wife was killed in a car accident.  He became homeless shortly after that.

He told us he had a song written about him called "Pegleg Mike" by Owen Poteat.  I checked it out. It's true. I like the song.  We both enjoyed talking to "Pegleg" very much.  He is an interesting guy who had some unfortunate circumstances in his life.

guess which one is "Pegleg"?

We have met some interesting people on our little excursions.  If we had ignored Mike,  we would never have met such an interesting person.
He looks like Willie Nelson a bit.  His name is Michael Johnson.  We will be seeing him again, hopefully.

The dream

Or was it a nightmare?

It wasn't my usual dream.  The lost car thing. The dream I have mentioned to my sweetie many times.

The car dream: 

I park my little sports car on a street and I commence to doing some errands.  When it is time to leave, I can't find the car.  

I have been searching for the darn car since 1973.  

The recollection is now vague.  I don't even remember  where I parked it, or what kind of car it was, or what color?

I go to bed every night hoping I will find my missing vehicle.

  

I worry.
When I find it, will it have 41 years worth of parking tickets?  Will some towing company be preparing to tow it away?  Will the hub caps be missing?  Did it have hubcaps?

Perhaps I should put this whole episode behind me.  I have another dream that is taking up my sleep time.

The Dick Clark dream.

Weird….I have a dreaming session and I wake up from my dream into another dream.  I am standing beside Dick Clark.  He is young.  I am old. Dick turns to me and says, "Hold on a second, I have to introduce The Duprees."  They start singing "You belong to me".  I quickly realize that I am in the Philadelphia studio where American Bandstand was televised.

Justine and…..bob.

I see Bob Clayton and Justine Carelli dancing.  Damn!!! I wanted to dance with her.  Maybe Arlene Sullivan is available.  Nope, she is dancing with Kenny Rossi. Oh well!

After the song ends, Dick tells me I will be on the rate-a-record panel.  You can rate a record between
35 and 98. The premise for those numbers is nothing's perfect or totally bad.

The song selected for today was "That'll be the day" by a group called the Crickets.  Hmmm…catchy name!!!….a group named after a bug.  What will they think of next?  The Roaches, The Fireflies,  The Dungbeatles?
The song was easy to dance to and everyone seemed to enjoy it.  I rated it a 98.  I think it will be a hit. The lead singer is weird looking.  Big glasses but bigger talent.  I told everyone not to get to attached to the lead singer.  His career will be going upwards.  The sky is the limit with him.

Dick Clark and Bobby Rydell.  I think I see Justine.

The show ends and I invite Dick to Starbucks.
"Starbucks?" he queried.
"A coffee shop. You know, like Horner and Hardhats."
"Oh…You mean Horn and Hardarts"
"Yeah, that place. I still think Starbucks is a wonderful name for a coffee shop."
Dick interjects, " I always liked the name Subway for a coffee shop."  I had to admit it did have a nice sound to it.

We arrive at H&H.  We sip our coffees and talk about music.  I ask him if there is any chance of me dancing with Justine Corelli.  He says, "You told me 10 minutes ago that women laugh hysterically when you dance and besides you are over 70 years old!"
"Oh yeah, There's that…but…"
"Forget it, Hemlock….F..o..r..g..e..t….i..t!!!!
Dick put 30 cents on the table.  I was appalled.  I was thinking how cheap he was.
"Dick,  I can't pay for our coffee.  I'm still in my pajamas.  I didn't bring my wallet."
 Dick shook his head. "Man..Where have you been?  Coffee is only 10 cents a cup.  I left a generous tip."
We walked back to the studio parking lot.   As we arrived I spotted the car that I had misplaced in 1973.  Dick walked to it and got in and turned to me and said, "Do you need a lift anywhere?"
"That's my car.  I lost it in 1973."
Dick seemed confuzzled about the current kerfuffle.
"The year is 1959, Hemlock!!!"
"Huh????  I guess I need a ride to the future.  How far is the future?"
At the stroke of midnight, Dick smiles and keels over.
I awake.
I must get a street map of Philly.  I know where my car is.

A heroic rescue

Day 2…..Crawling to the mail

Ocean Boulevard, Myrtle Beach…not Ok!

OK!!!!…Stop!!!!….This isn't fun anymore.  

I was born in upstate New York near the Canadian border.  I am used to snow and cold.   When I was growing up we played in the snow all the time.  I made snow forts, numerous snowmen, and occasional snow woman.  I was the proud owner of a flexible flyer.  Snow was fun.

Summer wasn't a season, it was a day.

I am so over that.

I woke up this morning thinking that things would return to normal today.  

Yesterday was a lousy weather day in Myrtle Beach.  A snowbird neighbor chuckled, "The storm of the decade is on its way."

That was yesterday.  This morning I saw him crawling through the parking lot, trying unsuccessfully to reach his mailbox.  Very icy.  I decided to go help him.  I am pretty good with ice.  I dressed appropriately.  I stuffed some tools into my toolbox for the task.  A word of advice for ice walkers.  You should never, ever put a ice pick in your front pants pocket.  We are talking major scrotum evisceration here.

We live near the beach.  Our property is on a dune line.  We are elevated from the beach and the road.  As I  stepped outside and put my foot on the sidewalk I became airborne instantly. I landed quite nicely.  This always amazes my wife.  She asked me how I can fall all the time and never get hurt?  "Practice."

I have fallen many times.  I could teach a class in falling.  Perhaps the local college will let me teach it this fall.  I wouldn't even need a classroom.  A parking lot and some bananas would be sufficient.

Anyway….back on topic, the rescue of my neighbor, the smug snowbird.   After I hit the ground,  I started to slide down the parking lot past the snowbird guy.   I couldn't help but remark to him, "Ha!..storm of the decade indeed. "  He answered weakly, "Help me."

"I will be with you soon.  I saw the mail girl crawl by our mailboxes about an hour ago."  I shimmied up the mailbox post, and opened it.  It was emptier than a politician promise.  I still had not received my inheritence from barrister Michael Okuwan from Lagos, Nigeria.

"Help me…….Help me please"  

"I will be there soon, Bucko!"  I prepared my tools for the rescue.  I took out my hammer and started hitting the ice with it until I reached Mr. Snowbird's whimpering carcass.

"You should have a rescue kit, Mr. Snowbird man." I advised. 

"What's in your rescue kit?", He wanted to know.

"Let me see!!!…I have a hammer, icepick, a space blanket, some nylon rope, tampons, 2 Starbuck coupons in case I fall in front of one of the numerous Starbucks in Myrtle Beach,  Mrs. Dash spicy Italian seasoning and 50 cents for tips at Starbucks."

"Wow! You are really prepared for disaster.  I have a few questions for you. Why Mrs. Dash seasoning? why tampons?  and why Starbucks?"

Ok….The Mrs. Dash is a salt substitute.  We do not use salt.  Too much sodium.  It should do just as good a job on ice as salt.  If it doesn't,  you have some pretty tasty ice.   The tampons?…that was a mistake.  I don't hear really well.  I thought they said tampons.  They actually said crampons.  An honest mistake.
Starbucks because I don't go to Dunkin Donuts.  DD carded me for proof when I was 68 years old.  That was a few years ago.  Mr. Snowbird eyes widened. "You're older than me.  Help us…Help us, please.  For God's  sake help two old men…Please…someone!"

I started thinking.  This guy is getting hysterical now.  Maybe I should not have mentioned my hearing problem and my Dunkin Donut issue.  Thank God, I did not mention my vision problem and my memory problem. I have to get him calm.  Perhaps I should slap him.  No, No,  A bad idea. My bad shoulder.

"Here!!!!!"
I handed him the hammer.  "This is the best way. Use the hammer to break the ice. Drag yourself home."  He just looked so pathetic when he again said, "Help me."

I used the ice pick to get myself home.  A tough 75 feet.  I look out the window occasionally to check on Mr Snowbird.  He seems to be making progress.  Hmmm…It's starting to rain again.  Freezing rain.
I hope he returns my hammer when he's done.

I think I see his lips moving as he removes the icicles hanging from his nose.  I think he is saying, "help me."
I could be wrong about this. My vision is not great. Or my eyesight.

Bullets in my head.

It was a dark and stormy night.  Yadda, yadda, yadda.  It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

WHAT?????…..

Singers exercise their voice. They may yodel or do the scale.  Do re mi...whatever.  Runners will stretch the legs with various exercises.  I do my writing exercise by doing famous lines.  You wouldn’t want me to get writer’s cramp, would you??

My blog has not been very active last year.  My brain has been uploading new information in 2013.  At my age you lose a lot of brain cells every day and if you don’t keep your brain active, you forget things.

The little French ladies mosaic wall plaque.

I haven’t  written much this year.  The doctor told me if I don’t keep my brain active I will start forgetting things.   Hmmm…..That sounds familiar.  Anyway…Where was I?  The doctor told me…ummmm….What to hell did he tell me?

Seriously!!!!

Senior citizens: Exercise your mind and your body.  It helps.

What have we (Little French Lady and Hemlock) been doing?

• I have taken a course in memoir writing. 
• Mosaics class
• Geocaching
• walking on the beach
• reading
• being the servants, cooks, cleaner and play pal for our cat Madison.

RANTS, RAVES, OBSERVATIONS, OPINIONS, LINKS, LAUGHS

I just finished the book, "Unbroken" by Laura Hildenbrand.  It is about Louis Zamperini.

This a great story about an interesting guy.  The author has a fascinating story also.

I also read "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg.  Why we do what we do in Life and in Business. Another interesting book.

Some senior citizen observations.  Some are mine.  Many of these were found on the internet.

"Sometimes I wonder if the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it"

OOPPPSSSS!!!

Mark Twain

"Too bad all the people who know how to run the country are busy cutting hair or driving a cab."
George Burns

These things keep me awake at night…..!!!

• I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
• 99.7% of the lawyers give the rest a bad name.
• 41.8% of all statistic are made up on the spot.
• A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
• If a man with a split personality threatens to commit suicide, is it a hostage situation?
• An intellectual is someone who can listen to "The William Tell Overture"  without thinking of the Lone Ranger.

MORE SENIOR CITIZENS OBSERVATIONS:

• Some senior citizens are in the initial segment of their life: AARP, SSI, MD, DOA, RIP.
• Everything hurts, and what doesn't hurt doesn't work.
• The gleam in your eye is from the sun hitting your bifocals.
• You feel like the morning after and you haven't been anywhere.
• Your little black book contains names only ending in M.D.
• Your children begin to look middle age.
• You finally reach the top of the ladder and find it's leaning against the wrong wall.
• Your mind makes contracts your body can't keep.
• A dripping faucet causes and uncontrollable bladder urge.
• You look forward to a dull evening.
• Your favorite part of the newspaper is "40 Years Ago Today."
• You turn out the lights for economic reasons rather than romantic ones.
• You sit in the rocking chair and can't get it going.
• You knees buckle and your belt won't.
• You regret all those mistakes you made resisting tempation.
• You're 17 around the neck, 42 around the waist, and 96 around the golf course.
• Your back goes out more than you do.
• Your pacemaker makes the garage door open when you see a pretty girl.
• The little old grey haired lady you help across the street is your wife.
• You sink your teeth into a steak and they stay there.
• You have too much room in the house and not enough in the medicine cabinet.
• You know all the answers but nobody asks the questions.

Old pictures: In the early 1900's men always wore hats.  Theywore them properly;
apparently it became a lost art.  People now do not know how to wear hats. They have them on sideways , backwards, oversized, undersized, everything but right.

MEMORY LANE: YOU ARE OLD IF…

•  You chewed Blackjack or Teaberry gum.
•  You watched Howdy Doody.  (I wept shamelessly when it went off the air)
• You watched Justine Corelli and Bob Clayton dance on American Bandstand. (I wept shamelessly when they never married.)
• You snuck in to the movie theater. (I wept shamelessly when I was caught.)
• You played tableside jukeboxes. (COOL)
•  You played big Seeburg and Wurlitzer Jukeboxes.  3 songs for a quarter.
• You know whT 45 and 78 RPM records WERE.  scratchy sound.
• You remember staring at the test pattern on your TV.
• You remember a flat Annette Funicello (RIP).
• You can sing the Mickey Mouse Club Song.  
• You heard "Rock around the clock" for the first time when you saw the movie "Blackboard Jungle" .
• When you were growing up, swing club was a Friday night dance activity not a sexual event.
• People actually talked to each other.  Face to face!!!!!!
• You stopped weeping shamelessly.

A few interesting facts:

• Willard Scott was the original Ronald McDonald.
• Bob Keeshan, who was Captain Kangaroo, was also Clarabell the Clown on Howdy Doody.
• Julia Childs, Chef, worked for the OSS, which was a forerunner of the CIA.
• Martha Stewart, while in prison, would knit a key out of steel wool and leave the prison at night and steal things and give them to the prison staff for preferential treatment.  The warden now drives a Bentley and numerous guards have lovely centerpieces on their tables at home.
• One of the above statements is a lie.

I have found a very interesting site called "The Moth".   True stories told live.  It has some awesome stories.  Here is a link to a narration called " A dish best served cold"
You will love this.  I hope you enjoy the stories.

As they say in Ecuador "Au revoir." 
I get confused.  I was supposed to go to Ecuador.  I ended up in Quebec.
I'm done. 
Out of mojo and juju and a few other mysterious words.

I am done. No more bullets.

EH/JHemlock

2013 Hemlock year in review

2013! What a mess.

I've had writer's block.

Happy New Year!!! I will take this occasion to give you an update on our life.

• There is a new cat in our life.  Her name is Madison.  Wilson, our faithful companion of sixteen years passed away in Montreal on October 9th, 2012.  
• We came back to Myrtle Beach in April 2013.  The house just seemed empty without Wilson.  Madison is very different than Wilson.  She is a very high energy cat, talkative and very bossy.  She makes more sounds in one day than Wilson did in sixteen years.  We cannot find her off button.
• We decided that Myrtle Beach is where we want to be for the rest of our lives.  No more Montreal for us.  It was fun, it is done.
• I think I am losing the little french lady.  She has lost thirty three pounds this year. NO DIET!  Amazing!!!  She just ate healthier foods in smaller portions.  The only exersize she has done, and is still doing is walking.  Yesterday she walked about six and a half miles.  The last time I heard from her she was just west of Baltimore and will be in Boston by Easter. (just kidding, but not about the weight loss and the walking.)





This pictures was ten weeks ago.  She has lost 12 more pounds since.

• We both have been taking classes.  I took a class in Memoir writing and we both took Mosaics.  We both enjoy the mosaics very much.  I created a Kandinsky mosaic, and a sunny beach mosaic.   The little French lady did a cat mosaic.
• We both have been reading a lot of books.  I am still reading John Sandford, Stuart Woods, Ann Rule and many others.  
• I just finished Johnny Carson by Henry Bushkin.  Johnny was a real jerk off camera.  He died alone.  I am reading something by Glenn Beck called "Miracles and Massacres".  I just finished a couple of Stuart Woods' fluffy books.  They are fun reads but not very mentally challenging.  The thing about Stuart Woods is he is capable of much better work.   He could be the next James Michener but he writes like a guy who gets to chapter 50 and says "I will finish this book in the next ten pages", and he does.  But I still enjoy his easy style.  
• We have done some Geocaching this fall and winter season.  We don't do much geocaching during the summer.  Too hot!!  We now have 12 caches placed.  On one cache we have over 400 finds.
  
  
  

  

  We are getting better at mosaics.
  
  

  I plan on being more productive with  my blogging in 2014.  I guess 2013 had too many distractions.  I lost my habit and motivation somewhere between Montreal and Myrtle Beach.  I enjoyed writing my blog and now it is time to get back to it. The Little French Lady just told me she is glad too. She missed it.

Happy New Year to everyone.

August 2012. Mmy sweetie before she lost 33 pounds.  We ate well in Montreal.

Our plan....God's plan!

UPDATE:Hemlock Report 

Well….I’m back.   The little French Canadian Lady (formerly known as “the little spanish Lady’ and  “the little French  Lady”) is back too.

THE PLAN:

We had a wonderful idea for my wife’s retirement.  

We planned on moving to Ecuador in September 2013. We ordered books on Spanish culture, Spanish maps, custom and laws of Ecuador. We bought, and started to learn Spanish, using Pimsleur lessons.

We contacted several real estate agents.  We found some lovely places in Salinas, Ecuador, which is a seaside city, where many American Expats live.

Perfect…….We are going to Ecuador. It has sunny beaches,  Spanish senoritas,  Pina Coladas,  inexpensive food and rent.  Where do I sign up for this?

Yup……So on May 4th 2012  the plane took off from Myrtle Beach.  I looked back with moist eyes and said fondly to the beach, “Adios, Amigo”  

The little Spanish lady turned to me and said, “Adios, Amigo?”  Were going to Montreal, Bucko. We are going to be snow birds!”

Gosh, I must have missed that meeting. “Snow birds??? what do you mean”, and she says “Yeah! Snow birds! You know those? They spend summer in Montreal, then avoid winter by moving back to Myrtle Beach”

The overcrowded beaches of Salinas Ecuador in April.

but it was worth it!!!

Montreal traffic problems on the way to the beach in April.

What happened to THE PLAN??? I must have been eating something crunchy while she was informing me of the new plan. ^&%^$

GOD’S OTHER PLAN:

“Oh!!….Ummm…..Bonjour La plage, mon ami.”

I wondered if anyone will want to buy some Spanish language CD’s in Montreal?

Soooooo……Montreal is nice, but my Spanish isn’t helping me much and those French people have a different French word for everything.

After living in Montreal for awhile, we decided to build a preference spreadsheet.

Here we go….

The good news about Montreal:  the beaches are not that crowded in January. (if you can find one.) It is  a no brainer. 

Would you prefer the crowded beaches of Salinas, Ecuador or the not so crowded beaches of Montreal? Shall we put this in to the win column for Montreal? 

Cheese Whiz tastes better in Montreal.  Another win for Quebec.

Montreal beggars are bilingual.  Another plus for Montreal. (yeah, but we san no beggars in Myrtle Beach!)

If you are a pot head, Montreal is your paradise.  You don’t even have to buy the stuff.  Just take a deep breath. People seem to smoke it openly.

These are some of the benefits of living in Montreal.  

Having said that, I still love the place.  Our time there was not wasted.  We did many fun things. (watch your step….almost no one cleans up after their dog….Ummm….I am assuming that stuff was dog poop.)

After a long winter we decided to return to Myrtle Beach.

THE PLAN:

Since we will be needing a car in MB, we called a dealer and ordered a pink 2013 Chevy Spark.   We wanted a small car.  We don’t drive much but a car is necessary; check that off our to-do list.

we ordered this car.

This is the car we ended up getting.

Wilson, our beloved companion of sixteen years passed away while we were in Montreal.  We missed him very much.  We decided that we would get a kitten from the animal shelter when we returned to Myrtle Beach. The Little French Lady wanted a cute little orange tabby kitten …
Ummm...What happened there?

Wilson (Oct 1996-Oct. 9, 2012) Gone but not forgotten.

Madison (born when?) looks like Wilson, eh?

GOD’S OTHER PLAN:

We got a tiny 4 year old girl, who looks eerily like Wilson and does not have an off button. She may look like him, but is indeed very different.  She is very vocal.  She has chatted more in 2 weeks than Wilson did in 16 years.  She joyfully runs around the house, amazing us with her energy.
We were not looking for a cat that looks like Wilson.  It just worked out that way.
That is another story.
You don't always get what you want.  Sometimes you get what you need.

LIFE IS GOOD!!!!

Smoke gets in your eyes

Today is Wednesday.  We slept very well last night.

Sunday night and early Monday morning....not so good.
At 3 AM Monday morning the fire alarm went off in our building.
Huh! We thought ... Some wise guy pulled the smoke alarm in the building or somebody left something burning on the stove.
I got up and walked to the front door of our apartment, opened the door and looked out.  It smelled a little strange, like burning plastic.  It was not a strong smell.
I turned to the little French lady. She was on the phone with the doorman, who told her it was not a false alarm. We needed to walk down the stairs to the ground floor.
Yikes, twenty floors down?....Yup.
We got dressed quickly but warmly, thinking we might have to go outside.
When we walked out our front door the smell was noticeably stronger and there was some smoke in the hallway, which  got stronger as we descended the stairs.
We shuffled along with numerous other tenants.  No one was talking. No one was panicking. It was an orderly descent. Impressive!
As we passed the stairway door for the 10th floor, I glanced at the window to the hallway.  It was black with smoke and the odor of smoke was strong.  On our way to the ground floor we saw a few people who seemed to have had less time to prepare than we did. Perhaps they were closer to the fire then we were. One man was wearing only a bathrobe and slippers, no pants, no socks. A woman looked sad and was holding a baby. We felt that we were lucky.
From our floor to the ground, it took us about 4 minutes to get to the ground floor where we exited a side door and crossed the street, where we looked up at our building.

Wow, this is pretty serious.  We could see one apartment had a very bright orange glow. The flames were  leaping out the window and trying to make their way up to the apartment above.   To the left of the burning apartment I could see someone who  was trapped on the balcony, and had no way to exit the apartment.

We watched the ladder trucks get into position to rescue the stranded tenant.  We watched as the firemen worked.  They had the fire out in a few minutes.  Clouds of black smoke billowed out the windows.
We decided to go to McDonalds, which is in the mall across the street from our building and is open 24-7.
I believe they had their best night ever.  It was busy!

We stayed there for about one hour before we decided to check how things were going.  Things were much better.  The firemen still were not allowing people in the building.  We decided to go to Moe's.
We heard that in its heyday Moe's was a pretty good place to eat. Not so much anymore.  The coffee tasted like it spent the whole night brewing. Yuck!
We stayed there for about one hour, and then we went back to our building.  The lobby was now open for business.  We got back to our apartment around seven in the morning.

It was a nasty little fire.  I have never seen so many fire trucks without a parade.

fire atwater

Fire ladders on outside of building.
note: At 1:45 to 2:00 you can see fire good,
upper right.

Hereis how the situation lokks like today:

• The 10th floor is now totally empty.
• The building smells very smokey.
• Five people suffered smoke and minor burns.
• We heard that a new tenant had moved in to the apartment building on Sunday afternoon,  onto the tenth floor. Sadly for him, the tenth floor is uninhabitable right now.  He was  crying in the laundry room yesterday.  I would be too.  It must be so  be devastating.
• The good news is: The building is cement and very solid. The fire did not have a good chance of spreading very far.  Good fire doors.  All the doors are metal. The floors and walls are cement.  In fact, the apartment next to the fire doesn't  show much damage. However, most of the furniture contained in the apartment where the fire started melted. Total destruction.
• The fire department did a great job. They were very efficient.

black soot and plywood on front of building.  

Yesterday was a mess.  Today repairs 10th floor.

10th floor hall being repaired.

Life is back to normal for us.  The 18 apartments on the 10th floor, not so much.