AND THEN THE FIRE TRUCK CAME

Our power was restored while we were out to dinner with friends Wed. night. It was so exciting to drive past the Old Navy by our house and realize the lights were on. That was a good sign. As we drove into the neighborhood, we began to see street lights and lights inside homes. Real lights, not flashlights, candles or generator lights. One whole section was still in the dark so we weren't holding our breath. We got closer to our street and started seeing the lights again. Finally, our street and the lights are on! Praise God!!

We came in and began plugging in the lamps and started looking at the house like we hadn't seen it for days even though we had been home since Sunday. We got things somewhat organized and I came over here to the computer to check messages and my very important blog. I think I was in the middle of reading O Fam and the smoke alarms start going off. After a minute or two, they're still on. We had heard of people having fires in their homes after the current comes back so the thought DID cross our minds that there could indeed be a fire. We went into Jordan's room where all the damage was, but nothing was turned on there. Opened the attic door and didn't see any fire up there. By now, the sound of the alarm is really getting annoying. Minutes pass and it's pretty apparent the alarms are not going to stop so D. calls the fire dept. He assured them there isn't a fire, but we don't know how to get the alarms to stop. We've been homeowners most of our adult lives and have never dealt with this before. The fire dept. says we need to get out of the house, just in case. So I grab my shoes, my purse, my envelope of very important papers (I learned about that after the tornado when people didn't have SS cards, birth certificates, passports, etc.). We put Bailey on her leash and realize we have no idea where Minnie is. Hopefully, she's hiding under a bed more annoyed than we are about the noise.

The fire truck finally shows up. It's now about 11:00 pm. Strangely enough, we don't see any of our neighbors. I guess people turned on the a/c and closed the windows and are oblivious to the loud alarm and equally loud fire truck. They didn't turn on the siren, but still the truck was really noisy. They slowly approach the house with their smoke detecting box. Too bad none of my fireman friends in OKC read this blog....they could help explain it better. It took them FOREVER to go thru the house trying to find the source of the offending odor. Offending to the smoke alarms anyway. Did I mention they still haven't turned off the alarms yet???? 15, 20 minutes pass. Jordan, Bailey and I are still sitting on the curb wondering what the deal is. They all finally come out and go to the breaker box and turn off power to the house. All of a sudden, everything is dark again. What a disappointment! But at least it's a quiet dark. They reset the breaker and leave without much of an explanation about why it all happen. We go back inside. It's now midnight.

Last night, D. and I were back up in Jordan's room and he removes the smoke alarm. Water pours from it! That's probably the problem. All the alarms are wired together and when one is goofed up, they go off. Why didn't the firemen think of that? Anyway, our alarms are still turned of at the breaker so our prayer is now that there will be no fire at our house until we get that taken care of.

D. spoke to a roofing company yesterday. They can give us an estimate next week. This week they are only out making temporary repairs. I guess most folks don't have an awesome handy-man teenager to fix their roofs. He also did an excellent job fixing the fence. He and I worked on the pool all day yesterday and it's looking much better....not such a mean green anymore. Here's a pic of the neighbors cheering on the tree cutters

And finally, how would you like to be this guy?

Next post, things I'm thankful for when the electricity is out.