12 a.m. I turn off the light after sketching a few designs for a new craft project.
5 a.m. I suddenly wake up because of a tightness in my lungs. My nose can be a super sleuth sometimes and my first brief thought was that I was simply smelling the smell you might notice when you use the fireplace for the first time in the fall (which we had done a last night). Because I am still a little under the weather, I dismiss the thought and started to fall back to sleep. I think a bit about how the heater had just kicked on and maybe that was part of it. I close my eyes.
5:07 a.m. The tightness in my lungs is significant. So I get up. And walk down our little hallway to the kitchen/family room. To a room full of pretty thick smoke. I check for fire and notice the smoke billowing in from the two inch opening in the glass doors in front of the fireplace. I yell for Jon (and probably scared him more than he wants to admit) and start opening the sliding glass door and windows. He goes to the fireplace and starts breaking up the “fake” Duroflame log we had used the night before. He first checked the damper; it was still open. He started feeling the wall and it wasn’t hot. The smoke was still thick. We still have two fans out from the summer in the house (because we never put things where they go…like out in the garage when it is cold enough for a fire in the fireplace), so we got them going to get rid of the smoke.
5:15 a.m. I call my dad because I figure he is the only person I know awake on a Sunday morning. With the time change I could be sure of it. He agrees with us but is worried about a chimney fire. Jon goes outside and checks the chimney. Of course, it is dark here but he feels it and it isn’t hot. No flames coming from it. So we open up every single window in the house.
5:25 a.m. Millie looks at us like “are you kidding me? all this excitement and you aren’t even gonna let me out to do my business?” Jon takes Millie outside.
5:30 a.m. We get back in bed. I, of course, bring my laptop because I am wide awake!
{Note: The log didn’t really “work” right last night. Not sure how to explain but it never really began the nice usual, although brief, nice roaring fire. At this point we realize 1) we could have broken up the log before going to bed, 2) it smoldered all night and the fire wasn’t hot enough to push the smoke up the chimney and the cold air starting coming in and pushing the smoke down; when the heater kicked on and affected this all somehow [or something – this is the fuzzy part], 3) the smoke alarm did not go off, 4) we are lucky to be alive, 5) we are going to get the chimney professionally cleaned, and 6) we need to change the filter in the furnace.}
5:35 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. I start blogging in bed. During this time, Jon wakes up several times to complain that it is as though the sun is in the bedroom (aka my laptop screen). I find a great meme at DebR's and figure I might as well post in my blog since I am up. I change clothes and put on several layers and look for a hat to wear because I am freezing. I don't find a hat in the bedroom so I get back in bed and pull my turtleneck over my nose. Jon wakes up and thinks I have the turtleneck over my nose because he is breathing in my face. Nope. I email Lynn to ask if I can come over later to escape this freezing cold smoke-filled place we call home. I find lots of inspiration at the craft blogs I have started reading. I get two more blankets for our bed and snuggle closer to Jon (and Jeero, Moxy, and Babo – our uglydolls) with my laptop. My dad calls to check on us.
8:35 a.m. I close my laptop because my eyes are drooping. I put my laptop at the foot of the bed and wake Jon up to tell him not to kick it off the bed. (Has to be one of the oddest moments of the day. Totally something I would do but totally rude to wake him up. But I was so cold that nothing was getting me out of that bed.)
At some point after I fall asleep my mom calls the first of two times. She has no idea about what happened and just wants to chat about things she is finding as she is cleaning the basement. Ahhh…hello people…it is early here. This happens to us a lot on the weekends. People back "east" call us early when we are sleeping in. I want to gently say, "It was 3 a.m. your time when we went to bed." (It is okay. I know, I know, I don't have to answer the phone but I always do.)Even though it isn’t as early as it was when I was first awake it is still early. After I hang up with my mom, I blog a bit more. Then go back to sleep. She calls again. Jon gets up. I go back to sleep after agreeing that no, I dont' want the (very cheap) train set that I bought for my brother one Chrismas and stayed up late putting it together so that when he woke up in the morning there would be a train set running around the tree.
11:00 a.m. I finally get up. I blog some more.
11:11 a.m. Lynn emails me back and says, “come over.” We email a few times to confirm.
11:28 a.m. My friend Missy calls and we briefly talk. (Hi Missy.)
11:45 a.m. I finally get out of bed and get ready and to go to Lynn’s.
12:30 p.m. I gather my stuff to leave. My husband stays behind because he is worried that there could be a fire. I leave him grading at the dining room table where he is wearing flannel pajama pants and a hooded sweatshirt. He is wearing the hood. I get into my car and turn up the heat! I talk to my friend Rebecca on the drive to Lynn’s; it is her birthday. (Hi Rebecca. Come visit out here to see if you guys might want to move here. We have the mountains AND the ocean.) I also chat with my friend Heather who helps me through a mini-crisis.
1:30 p.m. I get to Lynn’s and LoveShack’s home (they live about an hour from us) and they both tell me they are glad Jon and I are okay. (me too.)
The rest of the afternoon I have a really good time with Lynn but have no idea of the time. In no particular order, over the next few hours: We chat and laugh and I eat some Cheese Nips. Lynn introduces me to the nitty-gritty of how bloglines work (yes, I have been blogging for a year and don’t subscribe to something like this). I like it. I contemplate using bloglines and maybe even getting rid of my blog roll (because the only reason I have one is to have a lot of the blogs I like to read in one place so I can access them from any computer). I explain my concerns about how blog rolls accidentally seem to hurt people’s feelings. (In my mind I think about how it is kind of like that moment when the drama teacher posts who made the play and you watch the person next to you look for her name and run her finger down the entire page. and she doesn’t find it.) Lynn and I talk about Poetry Thursday. We brainstorm prompt ideas and she tells me about the one we decide to use for today. I love it. We spend some time talking to Tater (Lynn’s hamster) and I call coo and try not to squeal too loudly about how cute tater is. We talk about sex and orgasms and bad experiences at the doctor and how teachers talked about sex when we were in grade school. I teach Lynn about imdb.com. Lynn makes me laugh. I decide I need to eat lunch. Even though Lynn is in the middle of today’s PT post and wants to finish it, she feels bad that I am starving and, even though it is out of character for her, pauses finishing her post (I don’t think that girl likes to leave things unfinished). We go to the kitchen and get stuff together to eat lunch. We realize it is 4:30 p.m. LoveShack come and eats something to and we have an interesting conversation about moms. I call Jon and he tells me he thinks the odor is getting better in the house. Lynn and I go to Ross Dress for Less and she buys three t-shirts and I buy a very soft green blanket for Jon to thank him for staying behind and keeping the house safe. We go back to Lynn’s house.
7:20ish p.m. I leave to head back to my house.
7:23ish p.m. I take a wrong turn and end up going up, up, and up this huge hill. Bet it is pretty in the day time. I turn around and head back in the right direction after about two minutes. I don’t panic.
7:30 p.m. I eat a piece of string cheese.
7:40 p.m. I call Jon to tell him I am on my way home and he talks to me for a while because I am kind of sleepy. The string cheese kicks in and I am awake and hang up and then sing all the way home.
8:20 I get home. The smell is better. So much better. Thank goodness. We close all the windows but one and turn up the heat (don’t worry, Jon did run the heat during the day at different points so he didn’t freeze to death).
8:30 p.m. I change back into the layers of clothes I had on earlier and put on my favorite wrist warmers (given to me by acumamakiki). Jon makes me some soup for dinner. I start to worry about North Korea. Mille stares at me until I let her up on the couch. I start up my laptop and check my email.
8:45 p.m. I eat soup and finish up some editing.
10:00 p.m. I watch Without a Trace while reading a few blogs and answering some emails.
11:10 p.m. I start writing this post.
11:50 p.m. I write down five things for which I am grateful today. You can probably guess at least one if not all of them.
