Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Only a Test

I grew up in SmallTown, USA, in the MidWest. In our small town the whistle at the fire station would blow every day at noon. (Actually, it would sound @ 12:03pm, but who's keeping track?)

Fast forward to present day. The town hall in the small town next to my small town now is less than two miles away from my small town's town hall. [Did you get that?] And every day the other small town's whistle blows at noon as well. These are also, incidentally, the same whistles that sound when there is an emergency.

Anyway, I came home for lunch the other day, since I have the privilege of only working 1.91 miles away, and as I was fixing my food I heard a noise.

Was it the noon whistle? It sounded like the noon whistle, sort of. The problem was, it wasn't noon. It was like 2 o'clock in the afternoon. (Late lunch. I know... tell me about it!) As soon as I heard it, my heart sank just a smidge before the palpitations kicked in. I stopped what I was doing so I could listen a little closer. Why would the whistle be blowing? Is there an emergency of some sort? The whistle seemed to be non-stop. I started to feel a little anxiety coming on... I admonished myself to Get.A.Grip.

Then I realized something.

That noise wasn't the next town's whistle signaling an emergency. That sound wasn't the next town's whistle signaling we were under attack. Nope. That noise that I heard was the vacuum; my vacuum. And it was coming from down stairs.

I forgot I had told my son if he cleaned and did his chores he could have friends over. He was busy cleaning the basement.

As soon as I realized the noise was my vacuum, I started to laugh. Geesh, you'd think it's been a while since I've heard my own vacuum!

*For the record... I can neither confirm nor deny that last statement.

3 comments:

I really liked that cookie said...

Haha - glad it was just a scare :)

The Willeyes said...

You're hilarious :)

Ruthykins said...

i still have a hard time noticing ambulance sirens. i wish my town did a noon siren call.