the night in which there was a fire

today someone made me chocolate chip cookies. bought my son and me a shrimp ring. took my other son to his baseball practice. waited on my children so i could just sit and read. that person was my mother. we have invaded her house like a tribe of demanding gypsies and she could not be happier.

we have been here now for three days. and three nights. our stuff is strewn all about her house. she has given up her own bed so that her grandson, who sleeps like a starfish, can have the whole thing. we arrived here at 2 a.m. sunday morning and she didn't complain. she was just happy we were alive.

this is because our garage caught on fire saturday night. and it is finally a good thing that we are vampires and stay up half the night.

i had just fallen asleep when i heard the electricity click off. that is not a happy sound to anyone who lived through hurricane ike. because you immediately recall having prep time to hunker down. and the insanity that ensues from days upon days with no electricity. and you remember the destruction. but i digress.

my husband went out front to see if the neighborhood was blacked out. but no, other people had lights. then, as he was walking back up the driveway, he saw a blue flame through the garage window. on the breaker box. in a closed garage that held a car and gas cans. at 1:30 in the morning.

this story might have a very different ending if we had been sound asleep. take a look at our neighbor's garage:



they had thrown warm coals into a garbage can. the details of what happened next are fuzzy and varied, but a few minutes later their garage pretty much exploded. and it took much of their house with it.

as fires go, ours was very small. it melted some buttons and blew out our electricity. turns out we had faulty wiring. we got it fixed today. we are going home tomorrow.



the same night, my husband's young cousin was driving home from denton. it was late, it was dark, she was alone with her cat. she saw the car in front of her brake hard, and a deer come flying towards her windshield. her car flipped and she had to be cut out of it.

she is fine. her cat is fine. we are all fine.

but isn't life always just a hair away from not being fine? if we had been asleep. if she had been driving on an overpass. if this. and if that. most of the time it doesn't happen to you. but sometimes we all get a jolt.

it's one of those things that quickly puts everything into perspective. like a fatal diagnosis. so to summarize, let me just recap for you what is not important: it is not important that my husband's cousin totaled her car. it is not important how much money it costs to fix wiring and replace a fuse box.

what is important. safety. health. staying alive. go hug someone you love today.