Goat Rope

I lay all of the blame on that basticule Murphy.  It's all his fault.  Him and his stupid laws.... Sheesh.

Right as the yards closed at 4:00pm, we got a Code 70 (fire) call in B-dining.  I stopped and took stock.  Okay, who on the fire brigade is here?  Me, Watcher, Archer and Homer.

And we're all on A-side.  Snap!  Okay, here we go.

Just as I was trotting through Central on my way over to B-side I heard Captain Wheelie asking Lt Pants if anyone from fire brigade was over there.  Pants said "Negative." just as I walked past the Captain and said "I'm 10-45, sir!"

Luckily Watcher followed me over there.  St Francis grabbed me and said "Something smells funny down here."  Sure enough, there was smoke in the room and it smelled like some sort of electrical fire.  We spent the next fifteen minutes hunting it down.  Maintenance had been in there earlier in the day installing some new steam pipes and doing some welding.  We suspected maybe some hot slag had dropped down a pipe hole and set something on fire.

In the meantime, they are holding up count and the transfers in the sallyport trying to decide if we are going to find the fire and put it out or not.  And all of the dining workers are standing outside on a closed yard.

Watcher finally finds the source of the smoke.  They had installed a new set of valves in a chase under the stairs and they had smeared a ton of plumbers putty on all of the joints and then turned the steam on full blast.  All of that putty was sitting on the pipes smoldering away in the heat, creating smoke that was by now setting off three different smoke detectors.

Then Watcher did something I could have kissed him for.  And I just might later on. (grin)  He said "Rev, since you are the A-yard Sergeant, why don't you go back to your yard?  I can take care of this and the paperwork.  My house doesn't need me right now."

I burnt out back to my yard like nobody's business.  Right about the time I got back on my side when I heard things get a little exciting on the radio.  Everybody telling everybody else to 10-10 and whatnot.

It seems that right after I left one of their brand new steam lines burst open.  Fortunately, they had the door to that alcove shut at the time and nobody was actually in there when it broke.  Watcher told me later you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, the steam was so thick.

The inmate that works on the steam lines came down and said "I don't know why they turned it on all of the way.  They aren't supposed to.  Especially with new lines.  You turn those on gradually.  Everybody knows that."

Everybody except for maintenance, I guess.

In the meantime we got the transfers in and the dining workers sent back to their houses and laundry workers sent back to laundry and education released and the yards cleared and our 4:30 count happened around 6:00 pm.  After that there was so much confusion going on about when we were going to feed and where I just sat back and waited until someone told me what was going on.

We finally managed to get all of the knuckleheads counted and fed but it took a good long time.

And if any goats ever get loose, I know just where to find the rope.