The Writing Loft

See how many redundancies you can catch. This one is a little harder.
Group B
1. The bullets can pe*****te into any type of armor.
2. The boy completely finished his dinner
3. The weather will change during the course of the day.
4. The minors were treated reasonably fairly under the law.
5. The sign above the door protruded out over the sidewalk
6. She clipped both of her feet onto the bike pedals.

The pic below is what was left of The Loft after the fire. The wood stove is under the tree. There isn't even a small remnant of any of my 35 vintage typewriters. It's amazing how the fire took everything. The area looks so small.

Talk to you tomorrow. Good luck with the quiz. Question: Do you use a lot of redundancies when you talk? Hmmmm. Think about it.

P.S. I'm learning how to post multiple pics. I'll get it--I hope!!!!

Part 5

(End of Part 4: “I could not believe a church would deny us entrance. But, since we weren’t allowed to stay on the bus, our only alternative was to sit on the pavement of the church’s parking lot and wait—but wait for what? The bus had gotten us to safety so what else did we want?”)

Everyone left the bus and found somewhere to sit to contemplate their next move. Should Marty and I get a hotel room? And if we did, how would we get there? I suppose if we had relatives in the area, we could have called them for help. But our relatives are not around. They live more than eight hours away in southern California or on the East Coast. The truth is that there wasn't one available hotel room within a hundred miles. Paradise residents filled them up fast.
A myriad of obstacles and their solutions ran through my mind: where? When? Who? How? I looked around and a new reality hit me. What was I worrying about? I wasn’t sitting on the side of a dirt road in a war zone in the Congo. Soldiers weren’t looking for me with machetes and machine guns. I wasn’t in a place without food or without any hope of shelter. I was in Chico, for heaven’s sake. Whining is an insult to everything.
Just then my cell phone rang. It was one of my writing students.
“Nora, where are you? I’m coming to get you. Do you have someplace to stay? Do you know what you’re going to do?” I answered no to everything, except the part where he was coming to get us.
Bob had been a student for years and his writing had become compelling and a delight to read. He was also a friend. He took me, Marty, and our dog to his home. His wife gave us clothes, fed us, and gave us a place to sleep. We were mentally exhausted, and after an hour or two of talking to our hosts, we had no trouble getting to sleep. For now, the horror was over. We were safe. Little did we know that we would spend the next four years sparing with the insurance company, filling out forms, justifying our loses, validating our expenses, and filing a lawsuit against PGE. Above all, we had no place to live and the search wasn't going to be easy.

Tomorrow: "Tying Up Loose Ends" I'll also post a pictorial of our fire story and where we are now. IF YOU HAVE A FIRE STORY, PLEASE POST IT HERE.

Sorry, this is late. Our posting privileges got suspended for some reason. I was however able to get it fixed, so here is Part #3. I’ll post a new part everyday so keep in touch.

Part 3
November 8, Inside Walgreens

Walgreens was pandemonium. Dogs were barking, cats scratching and whining, and older folks looking desperately for someplace to sit. We older people turned over shopping baskets only to have them cave in under our weight. Great for shopping but not for the over-weight elderly. The alarm bellowed warning sounds as lights flashed—the police had broken in after all.

The instruction to move to the back of the store never came. I wondered when they would give the order, but I worried they never would. It was as though we were ignoring the inevitable, pretending we were not about to experience our own tragic deaths. No one talked about it. We were pretending.

Meanwhile, Marty thought he could retrieve our car from its parked position on the probably fire-engulfed road heading toward Skyway Road.

“I think I have time to save the car. There are no trees around here—this has an empty parking lot.”

“No.” I said not believing what I heard, “It’s pitch black outside and the fire?”

Marty didn’t listen to me and went straight to the police at the door. He told them he was leaving to find our car and drive it back to Walgreens should we need it to escape.

“I can’t keep you from going,” the policeman said, “but I don’t think you should.”

I didn’t think he should either, but I was stumped. I didn’t know what would be best, staying here and letting the fire roll over us or having the car should we need it. I had no experience on which to decide, so I just watched Marty leave and disappear into the darkness.

TELL ME, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE????