Not the Labor Day Weekend I was Expecting

It has been a sometimes long, stressful weekend. We finally had our house warming party, about a year later. Friday night I had to get the food, Saturday we had a birthday party and kept getting things ready. Yesterday was the party and it rained! Thankfully, Brian was able to patch the holes in the sheet rock in the garage and paint it (he started that project Thursday night) so we had a nice clean garage to party in.

I was mad about the rain, not only because we couldn't be outside, but I have been looking out the window at a huge pile to burn, and yesterday was the day but it didn't happen. We had about an inch and a half of rain just yesterday afternoon and evening. Knowing there are plenty of critters making the pile a home, I really want to light a match and get it burnt so they don't decide to move in with me.

I didn't have much planned for today, and the way it turned out, that was a good thing. I wanted to get some quilt pieces cut for my weekend away in 2 weeks, and shoot my bow a bit. About 8:20 this morning, the pager went off, and I listened to the page- a garage fire. The address: my brother's house. I was a little more alarmed, because their attached garage is a tuck over (part of the garage is under their living room). It scared me more that my sister-in-law had talked about going shopping and leaving my niece and nephew home with my brother. I tried calling and texting them both, and she called me back to let me know she was at the neighbor's house with the kids.

After Brian came home from the call, I loaded up the boys, and we went to their house. It was truly a sign of how wonderful our small-town community can be. One of the neighbors was dropping off coolers of food, another was helping pull things out of the garage. Another was watching the kids of the families there to help. Someone else had let my sister-in-law shower at their house. Many of the guys from the fire department had returned to the house to help tear out the water soaked drywall and insulation.

The fire was along the back wall of their two stall garage, right in the middle. A few more feet to the right, and it would have been directly under their living room. They were sleeping when someone passing by knocked on the door and told them about the fire. The smoke alarms in the house didn't go off, but the one in the garage was completely melted. There is no doubt, it could have been much worse. By the end of the afternoon, a new garage door was in place, the melted and burned items were in a dump trailer, and the items they might be able to still use were also loaded up.