The Fire...dun dun dun--

First of all, a big thanks to those really nice comments/emails/facebook messages I got from folks either saying they understand where I'm at or just offering kind words of encouragement about my previous post. I have read the comments several times and each time they prove to buoy me up. Thank you so much.

Yesterday proved to have an eventful moment and, because I know you are anxiously awaiting the story and tired of Shamae sappiness, I shall carry on...

It was a normal Tuesday mid-morning. In fact, things were going pretty well. For example, there were no screaming children. No hair pulling. No boogers hanging from 3 year old fingers. No toy taking away. No intrusive messes I was cleaning up. In fact, the girls were sitting playing puzzles at the kitchen table. I was taking advantage of the serenity of the situation and playing me some facebook farm town. (No, I don't know why I like it. Yes, I realize I am not a "real" farmer. Yes, it may be a silly past time but I enjoy it.)

So I'm sitting at the PC....watering my cyber flowers...and Sydney says, "Mom there is a really big fire back there." I go and look out the kitchen window and immediately see the huge orange flames in my neighbors back yard. I guess I should also mention we live in front of a ravine---no backyard neighbors. Yay! But we do have dry grass back there. Fire hazard. Booo! Our neighbors are also having a new privacy fence put it in. I'm sure it's nothing personal against us and has absolutely nothing to do with my children taking advantage of a distracted mother and running around the backyard in the buff. Or the fact that, from their yard, you can see right into my living and dining rooms. I'm sure they've never noticed the crazies next door who like to sing and dance around the front room...without talent. The fence is just a fence...nothing personal, I'm sure.

But, either way, they hired a company to build em a fence. During the constructing process they were using some type of power tool and, my guess is, the sparks from the tool ignited the dry grass right behind their home. At the point I get to the window I see about 5 men running around frantically (although it's odd because I KNOW I saw a smile on a couple faces and I KNOW I heard laughing. I'll never understand men's fascination with fire.) They were trying to get hoses put together, to douse the flames with some good, wet H2O. At this point I have a conversation inside my head about fires. See, we have some good friends who have been mentioned on the ole blog before, Mike and Wendy. Mike is a firefighter for the BLM. Throughout the past few years he has told us fire stories and in so doing, taught us a little about the nature of fires. The conversation in my head went something like this...

"I'm sure they will have it under control soon. I mean those are 2 full length garden hoses spraying the large flames within 200 feet of my house."

"But, I remember Mike saying that fires can take a while to fully extinguish. What if they put the flames out but not the fire and it flares up when I leave this afternoon and I come home to a charred home."

"Good point Shamae. Call 911."

And so I did. Of course I didn't know the neighbors exact address so I gave the Fire Department my address and told them it was the home right next to mine. They show up 5 minutes later and check to make sure the fire was completely put out and not lurking in the shadows to reignite and burn down the neighborhood. So I stalked the fire department from my window, making sure they were handling the situation properly...which they did. They were there for about 30 minutes and left. Now there is a black area behind the neighbors home which I can no longer see from my window because they also finished the fence yesterday...so no more neighbor stalking.

And that, my friends, is my fire story. Yes it may have been overkill to call 911 but my tax dollars pay for their services so I don't feel too guilty about it. Also, I'd like to think that I am an observant neighbor (or at least my 5 year old is. I was too busy making sure my fake cyber flowers on farm town had enough water) who was just looking out for the well being of the "N" families property. No harm in that. :-)

Have a great day!