ring of fire.
I don’t know about you, but when I think of things that are fun to do at 4:30 in the morning, sitting in an ambulance wearing only a quilt and woolly boots is right up there.
Well, and pajamas, yes, but no one was going to see THOSE.
We woke early this morning to our fire alarm having a hissy fit and the distinct, cringe-worthy smell of smoke.
After checking to make sure that we weren’t the ones that set everything off (did we leave the cider on? The tree plugged in? are we running a meth lab?), we grabbed something to cover ourselves and ran out to the front porch, where we met our neighbours and their baby. Catherine called 911 and within another couple moments, our downstairs neighbour had joined us, too.
Fully clothed, mind you. With his laptop bag. Smart guy.
I started thinking of all the things I should go in and grab, but then we heard the sirens.
Lots of sirens.
And then they arrived.
Four police cars with eight police folks.
One ambulance with two paramedics.
Two fire engines with at least nine firemen.
My goodness.
Gorgeousness all around, and me looking like an ottoman with a bad slipcover. Ole!
They looked a bit hesitant to go in the house (given the uncertain origin of the smoke) but in a few moments, they were tromping about on all levels.
And instead of worrying about the place burning into oblivion, I was asking myself sage questions like:
Do I have bad breath?
Did I leave underwear on the floor?
How does one accentuate one’s figure with a blanket?
Sigh. Shameful.
They finally loaded us into the ambulance (since the temperature was well into the single digits) and so we (Dean, Karen, baby Presley, Catherine and I) sat and laughed at the fact that Karen had remembered to snag her most expensive purse after taking care of her most important concern (Presley, naturally.)
Oh, and we had to mock my attire. Because I was rocking a look I swore I’d never even try.
Uggs with bare legs.
So how does the story end?
They let us back into our apartment after divining that our furnace motor was on fire (!!!) and pumping smoke through the house. It ceased to be a problem once the furnace was turned off. So we’ll be chilly for a couple of days if our landlord doesn’t get it fixed up soon.
Dean and Karen went off to Starbucks (that baby was UP) and brought me a latte.
I was a half-hour early for work.
I’m frickin’ tired.
And how are you?
November 5th, 2007 at 9:38 am
Fine, thanks. Good to hear you’re okay, if tired, but nothing new there.
November 5th, 2007 at 9:39 am
at least you got an extra hour of sleep on saturday!
November 5th, 2007 at 9:45 am
Chalk it up to decades of advertising that has trained us to be so image conscious and maybe a little to our stylin’ moms who insisted we always wore clean underwear out, because of the “run-over-by-a-bus scenario”. And thinking of that, wouldn’t you just crap your pants anyways if you were run over by a bus? We are who we are. All our breaths stink in the morning. If people have a problem with that, well they can choke on it. Having said that load, I’m so up for a Bucks.
November 5th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Whew! Glad you are okay. Did the handsome firemen like your tree?
November 5th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
oh my god, meg! so glad everyone is safe and sound. i hope your landlord gets right on top of things with that furnace. get let presley get cold. :(
November 5th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Oh what Monday morning excitement! If you start your festivities for the holidays this way, what are you doing for new year?! ;-)
November 5th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
I too would be wondering if I had that sexy, tossled, just woke up look achieved in movies or if I looked like I normally look which is AHHHHHHHHHH. I would also be trying to accentuate my figure with my blanket and hoping that one of the firemen was perhaps cute, single, and wonderfully charmingly interested in me. I’m no shallow per se, just an optimistic romantic.
Glad to hear that your house didn’t burn down.
November 6th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
I realize that this is a few days late, but I just had to share that a mere two days after your furnace tried to kill you by pumping your apt full of smoke, mine tried to kill me by pumping my house full of carbon monoxide. Also awaken around 4:00 am by the smell of an odd gassy/musty smell, I, being the amazingly brilliant one that I am, decide “eh, whatever it is, it can wait til 6:30″. Yeah, I know, genius, but serious stuff. You were almost short one reader for the rest of eternity. The moral of the story is always have a functioning CO deterctor in the house. Now I do. :0)