So, hanging around reading this afternoon, w-a-i-t-i-n-g for Mr. Golden Sun to make an appearance. Just about the time he FINALLY did, BIG THUD!!! I yelled, “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT???”

My first thought was a tree had fallen. It wasn’t windy but trees are “always” falling around here. But no trees seemed to be down. After a few minutes I jumped on to Next Door Neighbor. Yes, other people had heard it (and felt it) too. People in my neighborhood. People in the city mouse’s neighborhood. No doubt the country mouse’s neighborhood too but I think she was still at work. People on the northeast side of town. Even people on the south side. And especially in Whitmore Lake, a small town to our north. This was not a random neighborhood tree fall.

We didn’t hear any emergency sirens but then if a tree falls in our woods, no one calls emergency unless the tree falls ON SOMEONE. People in Whitmore Lake were definitely hearing sirens.

My city mouse found a Whitmore Lake “What was that noise?” thread and boy oh boy oh boy. A HOUSE BLEW UP! A 10 minute drive from the Landfill, eight miles as the crow flies.

I will leave my snarkiness about NDN commenters aside for the moment (“What did you put in that bonfire?” etc.). This was a tragedy! I’m not sure the casualty count is final yet but last I knew there were three dead (or dying) and at least two with critical injuries. And maybe one missing person?

One NDN commenter reported what they had heard on a police scanner: “1 black patient, 2 red patients, 1 missing”. That was earlier before more casualties were reported. I looked askance at the “black patient” at first. Can they really report someone’s skin color? Then I put two and two together and realized this was probably some sort of triage code used by first responders and had nothing to do with skin color.

So I did the google and found that a “black patient” is one who is already deceased or has suffered injuries most likely not compatible with life. Palliative care is appropriate if they are still alive but taking them to the hospital is not a priority if there are others with less severe injuries. Red patient means treat them and get them to the hospital ASAP and they may survive. Yellow is a person who can wait at least a bit. Green is minor/superficial injuries. I am not an expert on any of this stuff by any means.

Time will tell what actually happened this afternoon. Getting news, etc. from Facebook and NDN has its problems (I’ll rant about that some other day) and I haven’t looked lately to see if the local on-line newspaper has reported.

Did I dream this big thud last night? I dunno but I might have. I woke up to a big thud in the middle of the night. More like a hardbound book falling off the bed than a house exploding eight miles away. I said, “What the HELL was THAT?” The GG more or less told me to shut up. Nothing seemed to have fallen in the bedroom and there was no further noise so I settled down and went back to sleep. Or whatever. It was one of *those* nights but I long ago learned to deal with those.

Some things in life cannot be explained. I also dreamed September 11 and a few other more personal events no one else would know or care about. I haven’t had a “prescient” dream in a looooong time but this thud gave me pause. I know… Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. If you know me in person, you are like huh? I’m sure the GG is rolling his eyes if he’s reading this at all🤣

Praying in my own godless way for the folks in that house today. May the “black patients” have a safe passage if that’s where they are destined to go. May the “red patients” recover. May the missing be found.

Love y’all, KW

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