It’s not often that I get to write about something current on my blog. My life, from day to day, is hardly exciting, so I’m usually scratching my head trying to figure out what vital and essential information I should post each week. I generally have to dig deep into my brain to extract some random idea I can spin out to the requisite 400-500 word length.

But, every so often, something happens that’s a little out of the ordinary. Every so often, something happens that is, dare I say it, exciting. And then I think, yay, I’ve got something to write about that isn’t some kind of random conceptual blathering.

Something like that happened last weekend.

Things seemed to be going along in their usual quiet fashion. I’d just gotten home after a quiet walk along the beach with my wife, and had settled in for a quiet time helping my kids with their homework.

All of a sudden, there were several loud bangs coming from outside, as well as the sound of a bit of commotion. I wasn’t quiet sure what was going on. Were they gunshots? Should I peek my head outside to check or would that be putting myself at risk?

Next minute, I hear some cries from the kitchen. I run over and look out the back window. Smoke is spewing out of the roof of the house on the other side of the back fence. People are screaming and sirens are wailing.

What to do? Are we at risk as well? Should we evacuate? I charge out of the house and run around the corner to get an idea of what is going on while my wife and kids load the car with a few valuables.

Good news is, things seem to be under control. Several fire trucks are already on the scene, as well as police and ambulances. As far as people are aware, the residents have been evacuated.

For the next 45 minutes or so, we watch from the back door, seeing the firies fighting the fire. They are amazing at their job and things are brought under control pretty quickly. There’s no risk that the fire will spread. The affected house remains standing, though the damage seems quite substantial.

So that’s a bit of rare excitement in my life. Perhaps more than I might have needed. It got me thinking about those few other times when such events, the sort you usually only see on the news, impinged into my life.

Like the time I was in a group camping on a beach in Mexico. In the middle of the night, several bandits came onto the beach. Luckily for us, they went to some other tents first, then apparently got spooked and ran off, firing their guns for effect. The first we heard was when we were awoken by the gunfire, but we left that beach pretty quick.

The other time that comes to mind is when a student took out a gun and shot a few classmates while I was working only a floor or so above. I spent the afternoon locked in my office till police arrived and told me it was clear to go. Luckily, here in Australia, such events are rare.

So that’s one more experience to add to the list. One more little piece of excitement I was able to emerge unscathed from.

From my point of view, that’s as exciting as it ever needs to get.