Quiet morning

It is a nice, quiet morning here on the homefront, which is especially appreciated by me today! Haleigh has just headed off to school, and I am alone in the living room for now. I am looking out at a lovely park with clusters of pink rhododendron blooms on a slightly overcast day and enjoying a delicious cup of coffee.

I am appreciative of the peace and quiet because last night our little street was a flurry of mad activity. My neighbor's house, which is about 5 feet from my house, caught on fire last night. The home belongs to an elderly lady and her daughter is currently staying there, as well. We know them both although we don't see the mom much because she mostly stays inside. She is a gatherer, as older people tend to be sometimes, and the back bedroom where the fire started had lots of things to act as timber, including lots of paper, so we are all thankful that it was contained as easily as it was. There was mostly a lot of smoldering and smoke damage, and of course the fire hose damaged everything.

I was sitting on the couch when I saw one of our police sargeants pull up with his lights on, then jump out of his car and take off running across my yard. I opened the door just in time to hear him ask my neighbor "where's it at?". We had, just a few minutes before, smelled a strange burning smell but thought it was something maybe in the oven since muffins were baking. I walked to the back of the house, and that's when I saw the smoke. At that point I went back up to the front to make sure that the mom was outside ok and verified that she was safely away from the house. I lost track of the daughter for just a little bit while she was locating the cats, and then a fire medic truck pulled up. Those guys hopped out pretty quickly and pretty much instantly there were multiple fire trucks blocking the whole street - not to mention the bystanders beginning to line the sidewalk and the newspaper photographer. (Speaking of him, here's a link: http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/kitsap/pat/news/45370017.html)

I walked back to the back of the house, and that's when I saw lots of smoke, and two firefighters getting ready to bust a window. That's also when I panicked a little bit. Fortunately, we never saw any flames, but they did have to pull some smoldering stuff through the windows and douse the entire back of the house with the fire hose. I asked one of them if we needed to worry, and he chatted with a firefighter inside then told me we should be ok. After things seemed a little more under control, I went to look for my neighbors, and they were sitting on the porch of the house on the other side of them. It was starting to drizzle a little and I brought them some coffee. They assured me they were going to be ok, and Red Cross was on the way to help them make plans. Their house is not a total loss, just lots of smoke and water damage from what I understand, so hopefully they'll get all patched up in no time. I let them know we would keep any eye on it while they are gone.

So, that was how we spent our Monday evening! Today I am going to make recital costumes for Haleigh's class. Well, I'm going to cut and glue things and leave the sewing to a friend who actually knows what she's doing . . . but that's a story for another post. :-)