Shephard's Pie To Go, Please!!

Abe Lincoln said, "You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time.

When family visit from NJ, it is generally their desire to take Flo out to a restaurant to eat. And it is Flo's desire to be spared the drama involved because she is in a wheelchair and needs help to accomplish basic tasks. Perspective is everything.

So, this past weekend, Mom politely declined the offer to eat out. She stayed at home in sheer comfort and Nic came over while I went to dine out with the family. We were seated, ordered, and were enjoying the soup/salad part of the meal . I had selected Shephard's Pie when...all of a sudden....a very familiar sound pierced the air and altered the course of the dinner. It was the dreaded fire alarm, and for more than 30 years it was 'second nature' for me to jump up, grab the attendance cards[??], and immediately lead the students to evacuate the building. Now, here at the Holiday Inn, everyone kind of looked up momentarily, and then promptly resumed eating their dinner.

What? Doesn't the fire alarm mean...get up and go?

And then the waitress came around to all of the tables saying,

"We do have to evacuate the building. The fire trucks are on the way. Really!!!! And then we were all sheparded out the front door. There were sirens, flashing lights, the hook and ladder truck and assorted other emergency vehicles, and immediately a whole bunch of cell phones/cameras surfaced to document it all.

Okay...I joined in...took out my cell phone and called Flo.

"Hey! Good thing you didn't come out to dinner with us because we are all standing around outside watching the firemen enter the building while we take pictures of their equipment!! You would have been stressed right out! Whew! The Lord works in mysterious ways!"

As I ended the phone conversation, a waitress looked at me, smiled, and said, "Hi Mrs. W".

I hadn't seen this former 5th grade student in many years. She has graduated from college and is going on to get her Master's Degree. We had a great reunion and she did share that fire alarms were relatively common.

"Quite often, we never find out what the problem was...and then we return to the restaurant and carry on."

It reminded me of August 2006 in Niagara Falls. At 3:30 AM, the hotel fire alarm woke us up [Flo included]. We were on the 14th floor, and here is how the desk clerk answered my brother's questions:

"Is that a real fire alarm?"

"Yes it is."

"What should we do?"

"Run!!"

I kid you not. After that experience, I wouldn't book a hotel reservation above the second floor.

I never thought about a restaurant, though.

Thankfully, the restaurant was on the first floor and there were not a thousand stairs to navigate due to elevators not in service because of the fire alarm rules.

It was such a 'moment in time' that the kids asked the firemen for their autographs.

I think it was a 'first' for everyone involved!!!