Wow! And Pain.

Thank you for all the great comments on my last post!  You all had some terrific advice, and it's nice to know I'm not alone, in so many ways, lol!
It has been quite a week here.  I went in for my second interview on the teaching job, and it went very well.  Fingers crossed!  I won't hear until next week, as my interview was Tuesday, then Wednesday and Thursday were Rosh Hashanah, and now it's the Sabbath. 

Last night it took me 25 minutes to get from our home to the freeway.  It normally takes 5.  Then there was an injury accident on the freeway (Hope they're OK!), but I managed to get to work with 5 minutes to spare.  At the gym, the TV was on but without sound.  There was a breaking news story, a huge fire somewhere, but I couldn't tell where and I had to get to class.  When I finished, I noticed I had a text message from Hubby; turns out that the fire was the one you've probably heard about by now, in San Bruno. A gas main in a  residential area exploded, and resulted in flames up to 1,000 feet.  There's a huge crater where there was once a neighborhood.  And it's so awful and sad and scary (especially since Hubby had driven right by the sight of the explosion 45 minutes before it happened, on his way home from work.).
San Bruno is a very cool suburb, just north of the town where Hubby grew up and right next to SFO.  Which is why most people thought, at first, that a plane had crashed.
This comes on the heels of another accident; last Thursday a small plane DID crash into the lagoon just 3 blocks down the street from our house.  All 3 people on board died.  I was driving home the other day and saw the fusilage being recovered.  I think if I never see anything like that again I'll be very happy.
But back to the explosion; it happened at about 6:15, as people were sitting down to dinner and/or to watch the first football game of the season. San Bruno is a very family-oriented community.  It's pretty diverse, not at all far from the city, and a little more affordable than other towns in the area.  In fact, we thought about moving there when we first came up from L.A.  Our son went to summer school there a couple of years ago.  It is a great community, and everyone came out to help as soon as this all happened. 
I guess I'm asking for good thoughts and prayers for these folks. It is a horrible thing that has happened, and a lot of people have lost everything.  It breaks my heart, and makes me feel kinda helpless.  I did donate to the Red Cross, and tomorrow I'm going to go give blood, which are the only two things they want right now. (They said they actually have too much food, too many clothes and blankets, etc., which just goes to show how much people ROCK!) And already today stores all over the county were taking donations.
But it does look like more people are going to die.  There are folks in the hospital in critical condition, with 3rd-degree burns.  Off-duty emergency workers were taking victims to the hospital in their own cars and the hospitals were overwhelmed.  Yes, it could have been a lot worse, but it's still pretty bad.

And, of course, tomorrow is September 11th.  (And soon, the 2nd anniversary of Dad's passing.) It's all a bit overwhelming, isn't it?  The hurricanes, floods, fires, and now 9/11.  Oh, and let's not forget people who want to burn sacred texts.  It's all kind of...Armageddon-ish.  Especially when one is PMS-ing.

Oy.  I think I need to go take my kids to the pool and remember how lucky I am!!!!!!

Take care, everyone: G-d Bless and Blessed Be.