Small Towns and Local Heroes, Okay, Maybe Just Small Towns!

Today when I went to pick up the children from school, I knew I was staying with the play practice children while Thomas took the other ones home. So, I decided to stop at the gas station to pick up a soda. 50 cents, you walk in, open a refrigerator, pick out your soda, and give the polite young man a couple quarters. You can even set the coins on the counter give him a smile as he is pumping gas for some other lucky small townite and walk away. Love it! Today, there was over half a tray of homemade red velvet cupcakes lusciously frosted and sitting inside the fridge with all the cans of soda. I said to the young man(who pumps the gas for you AND washes your windows-for those of you who live in Oregon and NJ, having someone else pump your gas is a luxury to the rest of us in the US!-), "I see someone made you some cupcakes!" He replied, "Yes, feel free to have some!" I declined-not really conducive to the whole 5k goal-but walked away with a -'this is why I love living in a small town-smile on my face.

I guess I will add my heroic endeavors of the day here too. Insert a chuckle and a grin here! At the end of play practice I was sitting near a drinking fountain. It came on automatically, I guess to do it's cooling thing. There was a brief buzz and I was sure I saw a significant flash. So I went to go look for a custodian or the principal. (I had never seen a drinking fountain with inner fireworks before.) I was going to tell them they should disconnect it because I was worried it may cause a fire while automatically kicking on sometime in the near future. Not finding either of them, I headed back. Well, it was already smoking and at closer inspection there was a fire, yes a blaze, inside the fountain. So I started telling the children to walk to the front door. By about the third time, even a small bunch of excited Junior High children can be difficult to direct, I did my whistle. If you know me well at all, you know exactly what I am talking about. If you don't, I am that annoying person at ball games that can make your ears buzz with an insanely loud whistle. The kids quieted down and I once again told them to "Walk to the front doors." Then I turned my total attention to the fountain which still had some flames inside, I looked quickly for a plug, found none, and decided I was willing to face consequences for destroying school property. I grabbed the fountain and pulled it from the wall. The water on the fountain splashed and put out the fire inside. The fountain itself was still running and still mostly connected to the wall with a sort of retaining ring at the bottom. By this time one of the male teachers showed up and wanted to take over. I explained to him that the fountain was actually plugged in and we just needed to pull the plug. He gave it a couple tries and decided he needed a screwdriver and went off to get one. Again, if you know me, you know I am a doer, not a watcher, so I bent over reached my hand into the dark(I could see and I could reach, but couldn't really see and reach at the same time), and pulled the plug out. The power was now cut to this fire hazard taking away any threat. My job was done, heroine for the day! Where's my cape?... Maybe I would have been more of a hero if I could have removed the horrible burned rubber smell from the halls. Oh well, I can be a real hero another day. Maybe tomorrow I will make some brownies, bake some bread, wash some laundry, or be a mom to 6 children... The possibilities are endless! :D