Feet to the Fire

I bought three of these wall hangings. They were painted on canvass that was glued to jigsawed wood. I wanted to import them for sale. Even though I got the address and a telephone number, the shop disappeared over night and I was never able to buy any more.

When the sun went down the interior of the bus became ice cold for everyone except those of us who were seated over the exhaust pipe which ran down the left side on the interior of the bus. I started sweating and my feet were burning so I got up and went to stand by the open door of the bus. The young Danes who were sitting by the half missing door, were having the opposite problem. Freezing air blew on them continuously so that they were suffering from hypothermia even in all of their clothes with double socks, under a blanket and a plastic sheet. When the Danes feet became so cold that they could no longer feel them, we decided to trade seats. It didn't take very long before I wanted my seat back. Fortunately for them, there were several other passengers willing to trade seats for a while.

I managed to find a kind of balance in my seat. I dropped my shoes and pulled my feet up underneath me. To make myself complete, I needed a little blanket which I didn't have. The monk sitting in front of me had far more robe hanging behind his seat than he really needed. I very gently lifted the robe and pulled it over me. If he noticed, he didn't seem to mind.

Dropping my shoes to the floor turned out to be a very bad idea. About an hour later, there was the horrible smell of burning plastic. My only pair of shoes, except for shower thongs, were bent at a 90 degree angle and burned beyond usefulness. That was one of two fires caused by the exhaust pipe on the bus that night the other one had actual flames!