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So. Here is the formula for the Best Day Ever, according to Eli. First, we had a completely normal day. Then, at bedtime, I sent the kids upstairs to get in their pajamas while I cleaned up the dinner dishes. Everyone but Henry ignored me. Henry came downstairs a minute later and said, with only a teensy bit of urgency in his voice, “There’s smoke in our room.”
I ran upstairs. There was, indeed, a bit of smoke in their room, and more than a bit of a smell. It smelled like a match that had been blown out, or maybe melted crayon. Or leaking gas. The mind jumps to conclusions in these situations, and any of those smells seemed possible. I could locate nothing. I opened the window. The smoke dissipated, but the smell remained.
I should mention that Dave, who was actually a firefighter long ago, is out of town. So I did the normal thing, and called the fire department. Long story short, it turned out it was a burned out fluorescent bulb in the overhead light. Huh. Once we figured that out, the firefighters were happy to show the kids all their cool equipment. They also heartily praised our house renovations, which had nothing to do with any potential fire, but made me happy. Seriously, every firefighter I’ve ever met has been the nicest, most awesome person.
Then, of course, I said, “Before you go, we have to take a picture.” They said, “Let’s take it out on the truck!” Ok!
And that, according to Eli, is how to have the Best Day Ever.
Did this happen tonight?
Yep. Just happened an hour ago.
Such excitement! Glad everything is OK.
Yeah, I pretty much knew it was ok from the get-go, but I couldn’t in good conscience put the kids to bed in a room that had had smoke, and that had an unidentified burning smell.
It was totally exciting.
Great story. My favorite part is that Henry had only a “teensy bit of urgency in his voice.” Future firefighter, perhaps?
Oh. I had to click over from the FB link. Glad it turned into a fun adventure.
I was gonna walk across the street or maybe even call to see what happened, and then I realized I could conserve calories and just wait for the blog post… !
p.s…let it be known I did know you were okay when I saw you snapping photos and heard you telling the Firefighters: “You’re awesome!” Just had to add that because I thought people might think I wasn’t sure if your house had burned down or not and I just pulled the shade down…
Adriane, I think you were just being respectful of not being an obviously nosy neighbor. Though it’s certainly hard not to gawk when there’s a giant flashing fire truck out on the street (one that was there for a long time, since we made the fire fighters show us all their gadgets).
Let it be known that we are not at all a “shade pulling down to shut out the tragedy” kind of neighborhood. (Let it also be known that I now have the Phil Ochs song “Outside of a Small Circle of Friends” going through my head.)
FYI: apparently you’re not supposed to have fluorescent lights on a dimmer.
very happy it turned out ok. Yes, firefighters rock. <3