Sunday Reflections

Rain.

Ran.

Rain, rain, rain.

Rest.

City Life

Last night I saw all three emergency services in action!

Now, E and I don't actually live in the city. We live between the city line and the beginning of the nice, safe suburbs. Which we're closer to usually depends on where you're coming from. (Figuratively, not literally.)

Last night, we spend the evening with some friends who are bona-fide city dwellers. They are part of an awesome community connected with a church in the city, where we know two families who are comfortable and committed to urban life. They both both own homes and love neighbors in the kind of place your parents don't want you to live. They are pretty awesome.

We went across town these friends to an awesome El Salvadorian restaurant. (The great ethic food you can get here will definitely be something we'll miss when we move). This particular area is known to be rather dangerous- not the kind a place a woman like me wants to walk alone at night. Not the kind of place you need to avoid with a group of four, two of them self-collected men.

We had a nice dinner and walked down to see the water (yes, we live that close to the coast). On our way back, we saw an ambulance struggle through a line of cars headed to the Cinco de Mayo festival that was going on near where we were parked. As we were walking up, we realized there were tons of police cars there, along with a few ambulances and fire trucks. We saw several men laying face-down on the ground, and walked around part of the sidewalk that was sectioned off with police tape. We found out someone had been stabbed- and noticed blood and a crumpled t-shirt at the crime scene! The police were doing great, controlling the situation, taking statements- we noticed they had these plastic handcuff things instead of the metal ones I always picture. I can't imagine being a police officer in such an urban area. The ambulance crew must have already done their thing- we saw one pull away in front of us.

On the way back through town, we saw a huge hole in the street where they've been repairing a water main break for a week. It's causing havoc with rush-hour traffic, but it's not an emergency service.

Having dessert back at our friends' house, we saw a fire truck go by, lights blazing and horn honking. Our friend informed us that when living in the city, the thing to do is go find out what's going on- we could see that it stopped not far from us. So, we went and saw the firemen do their thing- the fire was in an abandoned house that is due to be torn down, and as far as I can tell they didn't even need to use the hose- though they did get it all hooked up, which was cool to see.

It was amazing to see all three emergency services in one night! The crime downtown seemed like a it was pretty serious, while the fire seemed like a relatively minor event. Incidentally, the town we are moving to DOES have volunteer ambulance service and firefighters, we were glad to find out while we were visiting out there the other week. I think they have some police, too, though I imagine that job is pretty different from the police officers here. We'll find out!