Too close for comfort...

After I laid Monkey down last night, Redbeard caught me in the hall and told me that our neighbor's garage was on fire.

It lit up the night and on our front porch I felt the heat that tells you, "Danger."

One of the fire department guys that Redbeard knows came sprinting toward the house and told Redbeard that he should move our cars (which he was about to do) and said that if we had any kids in the house we should get them out. He said the garage just next to the one on fire (and I mean, maybe 3 feet apart, if that) had in the past been used to store propane, though they weren't sure if any was in there now.

I am so ashamed of myself. I started to freak out.

I think I was working up to a panic; my breath was a pant, my legs were shaking with quivers as I went and got Monkey who was thankfully not asleep yet. I honestly couldn't wrap my mind around getting anything else out of the house (other than the dog & cat which Redbeard was taking care of). I didn't even have a coat.

Redbeard told me that our house wasn't going to burn, the only thing to worry about was if there was propane stored in that 2nd garage. I sat in our rig down by the street with Monkey and winced watching one of the guys kicking, kicking, slamming his shoulder into that 2nd garage door. I was about to call to Redbeard that he should get our maul, when the door gave. I thought that only happened in the movies.

Fortunately, that garage wasn't on fire, or he might have been lit up with a backdraft. As it was, a huge cloud of smoke puffed out.

Tommy's shop burned nearly to the ground, still smoking this morn. I feel so sorry for him- his tools, 4-wheelers, compressor, shop machinery, trucking business miscellanea. I am so hoping he's insured...

That shop is just (I'm terrible at the spatial scale outside of human scope)... well, let's just say it's close. Too close. And personally, nearest of all to our woodshed which is full on one side and would have provided a lot of combustible fuel to that fire. The FD parked a pumper truck right between our woodshed and Tommy's garage and foamed the hell out of everything.

We finally got back into the house at quarter of 11p, at which time I laid Monkey down with some alacrity, it being WAY past his bedtime and he had been elbowing, poking and scratching me for most of the last hour.

I found it difficult to settle down though I was exhausted from the adrenaline aftermath. I lay in bed with Redbeard and just ingested his presence, his life, his warmth. I feel very thankful today, and very leerily anxious about our woodstove. I don't know if that's what started Tommy's fire, but I had seen the chimney pumping out a lot of hot smoke about 7 hours earlier when I had taken Monkey for his haircut.

Funny, I didn't realize until I wrote that, how I had learned what chimney smoke looks like at different temperatures. Another Montana skill.

I am now ready to run away from all that reality and go lightsaber some Sith on KotOR2. Then I'll start up a swatch for a Knit One, Save One hat later today.

Love your peeps, peeps. And have your plan ready in case it is you someday. And then hug your kids and go enjoy your precious day together.