Date:         Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:55:05 -0500
Reply-To:     Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      FRIDAY TOPIC: what's the worst thing that ever caught on fire in
              your Westy?
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I know there isn't much time left in the day to discuss this important
topic, but here goes:

For years, I thought the worst thing that ever caught fire in my Westy was
a down sleeping bag. While it only burned for one or two seconds, the heat
from the fire made the down rise instantly through the air and festoon the
inside of the Westy in a snowy wonderland that took two rolls of packing
tape to remove.

But this past weekend, I think the down bag episode was surpassed by a
gigantic moth, its body the size of a man's thumb and a wingspan of about
3.5 to four inches. It flew in through the sliding door and careened toward
the fluorescent light over the stove before it hit the raised stove lid and
thudded to the stove deck next to the burner, where it instantly caught
fire. Whatever it was it could fly about 35 miles per hour pre-ignition,
twice than when aflame. I was busier than a pair of jumper cables at a
trailer park funeral trying to catch it and get it out of the camper before
it flew into a pile of clothes or a roll of toilet paper, or worse as I
knew, my down sleeping bag. It burned for an amazingly long time, flying
out of the stove flame again and again and threatening to set fire to
everything it collided with in its fire-stoked death troes, with me being
about two moves behind it during the perilous half-minute of its life. It
came to an ironic final rest near the burner that literally started it all.


Jim