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Soldier On
May. 19th, 2014 04:46 pmHave you ever had something happen and you see a meme later that you realize was made for you? Only, you wish it wasn't.
Wednesday evening June 11th, 2008, a huge thunderstorm blew in while I was sitting in front of my computer. I had decided the storm was bad enough I should turn off the computer. Just as I logged out, there was a huge flash and loud pop above my head. My thought was, the house had just been struck by lightning. I jumped up and discovered the lights were out in half the house. I could also hear an alarm going off. It sounded like someone’s car alarm outside.
My husband met me near the front door. It took about thirty seconds, but we finally realized the alarm was coming from our house. We have a security system that the previous owners had installed. We had never activated the system nor used it for any reason. So, there were the two of us trying to figure out how to turn that damn thing off. It was loud and making the dogs crazy. We ran over to the fuse box and reset the breaker that was out. We had lights again. However, within another minute, we lost power to the whole house.
Ned decided to pop up into the attic and see if he could turn the alarm off from there. That is when he smelled smoke. I called 911 to be on the safe side. He jumped out of the attic and ran around the outside of the house looking for any fire. He didn’t find anything. I was just finishing my call with 911 when he popped his head back into the attic. He was only halfway up the ladder when he saw the fire in the insulation. The smoldering spark had turned into a raging blaze in the back end of the attic.
At that point, we dropped everything, grabbed the dogs and got out. I remember that about the time he yelled there was a fire was when the smoke started to come down through the vents. The smoke literally chased us out of the house. We threw the dogs into the car and moved it down the street. We each ran to a separate neighbor’s house to warn them. At that point, we could hear the fire trucks on their way.
So, there we were, barefoot in the pouring rain on a Wednesday evening in June watching our house burn. A lightning strike sparked our furnace and caused a fire in the insulation of our attic. Most of the roof was gone. We walked away that night with the clothes on our backs, the dogs and our car.
After the fire, Ned and I sat back and reassessed some things in our lives. He was making enough that I decided I could quit my job and finish college. So, two weeks after the fire, I gave my employer notice. It was a decision that ended up being a huge relief. The lowered stress levels were one of the major benefits.
I gave my notice on a Monday. That Thursday night, I discovered something else. I was pregnant with our first child. I had become pregnant just before our house fire. It was a lot to deal with in one month. My husband did say to me that at least the news kept getting better. I remember feeling overwhelmed for a bit. Not really more than a couple of hours.
There was nothing for us to do but soldier on. We repeated a mantra that helped us. It’s just stuff. Sure, it was our stuff, but stuff can be replaced. Lives could not. We were lucky.
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This is my entry for LJ Idol: S9 Week 9. This week’s topic was “Keep calm and end this meme”.
Wednesday evening June 11th, 2008, a huge thunderstorm blew in while I was sitting in front of my computer. I had decided the storm was bad enough I should turn off the computer. Just as I logged out, there was a huge flash and loud pop above my head. My thought was, the house had just been struck by lightning. I jumped up and discovered the lights were out in half the house. I could also hear an alarm going off. It sounded like someone’s car alarm outside.
My husband met me near the front door. It took about thirty seconds, but we finally realized the alarm was coming from our house. We have a security system that the previous owners had installed. We had never activated the system nor used it for any reason. So, there were the two of us trying to figure out how to turn that damn thing off. It was loud and making the dogs crazy. We ran over to the fuse box and reset the breaker that was out. We had lights again. However, within another minute, we lost power to the whole house.
Ned decided to pop up into the attic and see if he could turn the alarm off from there. That is when he smelled smoke. I called 911 to be on the safe side. He jumped out of the attic and ran around the outside of the house looking for any fire. He didn’t find anything. I was just finishing my call with 911 when he popped his head back into the attic. He was only halfway up the ladder when he saw the fire in the insulation. The smoldering spark had turned into a raging blaze in the back end of the attic.
At that point, we dropped everything, grabbed the dogs and got out. I remember that about the time he yelled there was a fire was when the smoke started to come down through the vents. The smoke literally chased us out of the house. We threw the dogs into the car and moved it down the street. We each ran to a separate neighbor’s house to warn them. At that point, we could hear the fire trucks on their way.
So, there we were, barefoot in the pouring rain on a Wednesday evening in June watching our house burn. A lightning strike sparked our furnace and caused a fire in the insulation of our attic. Most of the roof was gone. We walked away that night with the clothes on our backs, the dogs and our car.
After the fire, Ned and I sat back and reassessed some things in our lives. He was making enough that I decided I could quit my job and finish college. So, two weeks after the fire, I gave my employer notice. It was a decision that ended up being a huge relief. The lowered stress levels were one of the major benefits.
I gave my notice on a Monday. That Thursday night, I discovered something else. I was pregnant with our first child. I had become pregnant just before our house fire. It was a lot to deal with in one month. My husband did say to me that at least the news kept getting better. I remember feeling overwhelmed for a bit. Not really more than a couple of hours.
There was nothing for us to do but soldier on. We repeated a mantra that helped us. It’s just stuff. Sure, it was our stuff, but stuff can be replaced. Lives could not. We were lucky.
-----------
This is my entry for LJ Idol: S9 Week 9. This week’s topic was “Keep calm and end this meme”.
