Shall we blame the landfill?

Now, about this mysterious smell at Newbury Elementary this morning ... I'm here with 2 children who were there ... "It just smelled really, really bad in the hallway," one of them is telling me. She says it smelled "gas-ish," as in gas that would be in your car.

The boy is telling me that it smelled like pizza with mushrooms, so he thought it smelled good. He says he thought it was just a fire drill when the fire alarm went off - until he saw the firemen. It sounds like a very confused situation as kids were told not to take their backbacks and whatnot, were told to leave the building (they were out there for 30-35 minutes) then they were sent to the cafeteria before being sent home. There was an early dismissal anyway, because of the alleged snow storm.

The girl is now telling me that they were told there was an odor coming from the kindergarten wing.

So, the buses bringing the kids home for early dismissal were late, which sent me into a panic as I was supposed to be watching these kids after they got home at noon. They actually got home at about 12:20.

OK ... so I told the girl that there was a red pickup truck behind me when I was driving off the island at the time this all started (10:30 a.m.), with its flashers on and driving right on my butt. She says that guy was probably a volunteer firefighter that she knows of. My apologies to him; I had no idea.

All day my throat has been scratchy and I've been coughing ... which way is the wind blowing again?