Tennis has been cancelled for 2 weeks due to people traveling and not being able to find subs. Today would normally be a tennis day for me. So instead I decided to make a tennis day for myself. I got a backpack ready by loading a bucket-full of tennis balls, my tennis racket, some water, my phone, and some ID. I rode my bike 1 1/2 miles to a neighborhood park to practice my tennis serve. It turns out I took 57 tennis balls. So my total number of serves was 247 (the math doesn't add up because i decided on the last round I had to re-serve any balls that didn't go over the net - 19). My arm started to get tired - and is sore this morning. Plus we have started our monsoon season and it was humid and I was sweating buckets. But I enjoyed it all the same. Here is evidence of my rocket serve - maybe.
As I pulled into the park I discovered 2 City of Peoria trucks in the parking lot. The "workers" were really busy - talking to each other. I'm sure it was very important city business! Ha, ha, ha. Just 10 feet from their trucks was a plastic garbage bin that had smoke billowing out of it. The smell of smoke was really strong! I don't know how the people in those trucks could have missed it. But as I said the people at the trucks were really busy!! I laid down my bike and ran over and said that there was a fire in the garbage can. They looked up at the crazy lady (me) and slowly looked in the direction of the bin. It was then that the guy jumped to action and got his little 20 ounce water bottle and worked on getting the fire put out. Sheesh! I had like 64 ounces of water with me. I asked if he wanted me to help but I'm sure they didn't want me doing anything due to liability. Anyway, I went on to the tennis courts and watched the action. He made lots of trips to the garbage bin and back to fill his water bottle. They eventually got the fire out and left. When they were gone, I walked over to the bin to take a look. This is what I saw.
This water leaking out the bottom of the bin - remnants of their heroic? fire-fighting actions.
A peek into the bin shows the side of the bin looking charred.
There is a garbage bag melted open with lots of debris from the previous evening's 4th of July celebrations.
Upon closer inspection you can definitely see the culprit of the garbage bin fire. It was the use of the fireworks that are now legally sold and purchased in Arizona. The problem is that in Peoria (where the park is located) it is totally illegal to actually use any of those fireworks. Now I know why that is the rule in Peoria - evidently their city workers do not know what a fire is, how a fire smells, or that a fire produces smoke, and if a garbage bin is smoking - it isn't a cigarette! I guess someone didn't get the memo about the Peoria ban on lighting fireworks. And they definitely did not make sure their used fireworks were all the way out before stuffing them into the bag and throwing them away. Thanks to me and my quick actions a disaster of monumental proportions was averted. Well at least I was at the right place at the right time.
Yay me! I saved the day!
2 comments:
Maybe you could run for mayor there and teach those guys a thing or two.
Tee hee
Wow! You really should have let them have it. Shouldn't they have had a fire extingisher on hand in their truck? I thought all city vehicles had them...maybe not. Now that fireworks are sold they might want to think about it.
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