Welcome To Blues Travels

[Editors Note: This was originally posted at Total Physique Online]

…Just ask the Albermarle County Fire Department!

Three months ago, our condominium complex was burned down and in an instant I was thrust into a new phase in my life.

The last 3 months have been an adventure to say the least, and while part of me really wishes the fire had never happened, I have to admit that there is a part of me that is grateful it did. When I think about it, if the fire had not happened I would still be in that condo with my brother, living a life as stagnant as a 3-day old bucket-full of rainwater.

As a result of the fire, my brother and I were forced out of our proverbial nest. Fortunately, no one was harmed as a result of the fire. In the end, the fire has been a good thing. All that remains is for each of us to find a new home and continue on with life.

As I think back to that wonderfully fateful day, I find myself pondering a question that most of us eventually ask ourselves at some point in our lives: What matters most to me in this life?

If you have not asked yourself that question up until now, you might wish to think about it some. I didn’t, and it could have cost me dearly. Were it not for God stepping in at the very last moment and performing an incredible miracle, I would not be here and you would not be reading this.

Imagine, for a moment, sitting down for lunch at your home. You are relaxed in your castle, your domicile. All around you are a lifetime’s worth of stuff. Furniture, clothing, odds and ins, mementos of times gone by, bills, letters, etc. Some of it is junk. Some of it is priceless, at least to you it is. Some of it is truly valuable. Some of if is…well, hell, some of it is just there because you have no idea what to do with it.

All of the sudden, your doorbell rings. You answer it. A stranger stands at your door and tells you to get out of your house because it is burning down. OK. What do you do? What do you save? What matters most to you? What can be left behind? More importantly, how on Earth do you make such a profound decision when you literally have only seconds to spare? That was the situation I was faced with nearly three months ago and I was most definitely not prepared for it.

My first thought was to get my brother and Hershey (our cat) safely out of the house. I shouted up the stairs to my brother and made him aware of the situation. Next, I ran downstairs to my basement apartment. I was absolutely stymied. I had not a clue of what to do other than what I had already done, which was to get my brother and Hershey taken care of.

My attention then turned to salvage, or rather what not to salvage. I quickly scanned my apartment. All around me were possessions that I wanted to save, and yet I knew I could not save them all. In fact, I knew I was taking a last look at everything I owned (which was very little to begin with).

Very quickly it dawned on me that the boxes of letters and journals I had managed to save over the years were simply too hard to get to. The bottom line was that it would take too much time to locate them, package them etc.. Those journals and letters were a total loss. Inwardly, I said goodbye to them. No time. Had to move. What next. Think. Think.

My letters from my sweetheart, Bunny - were a loss. Too many to locate, gather up and package. Damn! Family photos? Gone. “OK, OK. Calm down. Your asthma is kicking in”. Wheezing now.

“My weights! I cannot lose them. They are the key to my health. My laptop! My stamp collection. OK. I can save these things. I can try.”

So, with a makeshift plan of action in my head, I went to work. Literally.

I flung open my sliding glass door, immediately going to work hauling my weights out of the apartment. The plan was to carry them to the edge of the woods. The first thing I tried to salvage were my Quicklock Dumbbells. I figured it this way: If I lost all my other weights, I could still train with the dumbbells. Save them first.

So, I grabbed the first 120 lb. dumbbell (which has been set up the night before for calf raises) and I carried it out of the apartment toward the edge of the woods. I lugged that son-of-a-bitch 20 yards, the damn thing feeling more and more like a big, black monolith with each gasping breath I took. By the time I got that glob of iron to the edge of the woods, I dropped it. With hands on hips and chest heaving I was starting to feel like a fool. I was certain that if I tried to save even a single additional piece of equipment I was going to collapse from respiratory arrest.

By now my asthma was totally involved - my lungs on fire, heart exploding in my chest, forehead sopping wet. I was spent. In that split second my thinking experienced a sudden and dramatic polar shift. I went from thinking about saving the most important things I owned to saving the lightest and smallest. Fortunately, and rather conveniently for me, the Apple laptop and stamp collection I possessed fit neatly into those two categories. I dashed (well, OK, staggered) back into my burning building and grabbed these sole items, making my way up the stairs, out the front door and into a most uncertain future.

By now, the roof of the entire complex was roaring like a B-2 Stealth Bomber. I can remember looking up and seeing this place I had called home for 8 months turning into an inferno. That moment was surreal. I remember running along side my brother and asking him if he had ever managed to get that Renters Insurance I asked him to get. Naturally, he said, “No”. “Let’s talk about this later”, I replied. Sheesh.

Outside, the entire neighborhood looked on in horror as the fire raged. The firefighters had a difficult time gaining control of it, too. By now, the first three units of the complex were a total loss. My brothers unit, the fourth unit, was certain to be next. The fire was progressing and moving so quickly, like some sort of thermal wood chipper. It was amazing.

Then, as the blaze continued to advance and as I continued to pray, the fire just…stopped! It stopped. Or, to be more precise, it stopped at my brothers condo unit wall, miraculously sparing my brothers unit and all of its contents. Miracle.

It was at this point that the firefighters began to beat back the flames. A full three hours after the flames had started their relentless march, the fire had been doused, but not before destroying 3 of the 4 units. Surprisingly, the only damage done to my brothers unit was not as a result of the fire itself, but rather the firefighters going in and pulling down ceilings and poking holes in walls in order to check for possible hot spots (Hot spots are latent flames or areas of high heat that could grow into another fire.).

With the drama now over for the most part, all that remained was for each family to count the cost of that day and deal with the ramifications of the fire. What mattered most was that we all had our health. No one was hurt. True, my brother and I, along with everyone else, were without a place to live and we all needed to set about the task of finding food and shelter, but at least no one died. The End.

“Wait a minute! Not so fast! What do you mean, “The End!”? What about the Quicklock Dumbbell that you left at the edge of the woods?” Wow. You do not miss a thing, do you reader! Yes, what about that dumbbell, indeed!

As I was being interviewed by the Red Cross, I remember pausing to ask a nearby policeman for a special favor. I asked him to see to it that one of the firefighters go to the back of the complex, to the edge of the woods, and retrieve a dumbbell which he would find there. I requested that someone place it back into the apartment for safe keeping.

Now, reader, lest you accuse me of being lazy I want you to know that I would have done it myself, but frankly I was not breathing very well at that point. Besides, authorities would not let unauthorized people near the burned out building. Since the elements would most certainly ruin my prized dumbbell I had to do something about it. I couldn’t very well leave it outside, could I? Thankfully the officer agreed to have someone go get it, and here is where the story gets funny.

My brother and I were still being interviewed by the Red Cross when someone knocked on the rear door of the Red Cross vehicle we were sitting in. It was a full twenty minutes after having made my special request to the cop. As it turned out, the person doing the knocking was one of the firefighters. In fact, it was the Fire Marshall, and he had the most perplexed look on his face.

“Are you the guy who lifts the weights?”, he asked.

“Yep”.

“Man, when the police officer asked me to go get a dumbbell, I was expecting to find one of these white, plastic jobs that weighs 10 lbs. Instead, I saw this big black thing on the ground. I leaned over to pick it up and I nearly destroyed my back! How much does that thing weigh!?”

“120 lbs.”

“Holy Shit. No wonder! I had to have two of my guys lift that thing and carry it into the apartment!”

True story.

Now, I realize this is a long post, and I am almost done, but there are two points I want to make.

First, when push came to shove I had some choices to make. I had a fire on my hands and I needed to save what I could from the fire. I chose to save my Ironmaster Quicklock Dumbbells. That should tell you what I think of Ironmaster and its’ set of dumbbells. It should also tell you just how ruggedly heavy these suckers are when loaded with the 120 lb. add-on kit. Hey, it takes two grown men to move one of them, right? So, if you are looking for a cheap plug for a product, here it is: The Ironmaster Quicklock Dumbbells are one of the best training tools money can buy. When it comes right down to it, they could very well end up being the most important and versatile tool in your training arsenal.

Second, and most importantly, it is imperative that every person reading this post have a plan of action in the event of a fire. Have a course of action set in place, along with a small list of things that you need to save. Either that, or you can afford it get a fireproof safe that you can store your most important things in. Have your most precious items in a convenient location if possible, and make certain that your list of items can be retrieved in one trip. You do not want to find yourself running in and out of a burning building more than one time. If you have more than one animal, have all your animal carriers located in the same place, and have them easily accessible. If you have more than one person in your home, make certain that each person has a specific set of duties to perform, and above all remember that no items are worth saving if by saving them you risk injury to yourself.

Thanks for reading.