Ashes to Ashes

Hanging out at the wrecker joint.

Hot Wheels

It all started close to midnight on an evening with a lot of freezing rain. Jackie and I are snuggled nicely in bed when we hear a loud bang, followed by a bright white light. Jackie got up and looked out the hall window and saw a large white fire at the end of Winton, almost to Konkle. "Bob, there is a fire at the end of the road, across from McBrides!". Several seconds later I hear; "Bob, there is a fire in front of our house!"

We go downstairs, hear the crackling and see the large white sparks of a downed high power line running the entire length of Winton, from the pole to our left to the original white fire at the end of the street. Good news is, we are OK. Bad news is, the sparkling wires have landed on both of our vehicles parked out front. I call 911 to let them know the situation. "Please don't call us for a power outage. Click". I look out the window and see the front tire of the Saturn on fire and call 911 again, this time getting a better response.

We watch as more of the Saturn catches on fire, at which point I get worried that the gas tank might blow, so Jackie wakes up her mom and tells her to get dressed. Helen checks out the view from the picture window and doesn't quite get the idea that we might have to leave the house at some point and it would be nice to be dressed for the occasion. I mean, it takes her a half an hour. And drawn like a moth to a flame she doesn't really believe us when we tell her that standing right in front of the large glass window might be quite dangerous. At that point the police finally arrive, followed a few minutes later by the fire truck, and they all come to enjoy the view from a safe distance. The fire men run a hose past the front of the house in case the house needs it but want nothing to do with getting near the downed wires.

I go outside in the freezing rain to talk to the police and the firemen and they tell me that "most likely" the gas tanks will not explode because they are designed to vent the gas so it burns out that way (maybe mother does know best). Consumer Power is busy with a lot of other storm damage and nothing will happen until they come and shut off the power. Meanwhile, the Windstar tires start to burn. Consumers finally arrive at about 2:45 am and the male firemen let the lone female "fire fighter" haul the heavy hose to flames still pouring from what is left of the cars. A few squirts here and a few squirts there, a lot of smoke, she waits, and both cars start to flame again. This goes on for 45 minutes, same results. Finally a fireman brings a hand held tank and subdues the metal hunks in a couple of minutes. Another fireman gets an ax and tries to open the Saturn trunk. I watch him work on it for about 5 minutes, fingering the trunk key absentmindedly in my pant pocket.

Eventually the fire people leave and the towing service arrives to remove the blacken shells. I thought they would bring a flat bed, tilt down truck, but down the road comes a regular wrecker. Now, the cars don't have any rubber on the wheels. In fact, all of the tires are kaput. But they figure it out with towing wheels for one car and the tilt truck for the other. We finally go to bed after 4 am but don't really get any sleep. But praise the Lord, we are fine.

Camp Kuipers

Mallory and Sydney had a great time at Camp Kuipers last week. This was the only picture I took - right before a soccer clinic at a friends house. Actually, the girls insisted that they were both called Sydney since they wanted to do everything the same all week long!

2 minus 2 teeth

Elliana lost her 2nd front tooth at our house awhile ago - finally posting pictures. Raleigh's two front ones are missing and the new ones are nowhere in sight - Ellie already is growing her first top one. They will look like Daphne in no time!

Family Funeral pics

Thought I'd post some pics from the funeral, that didn't make the young blog. Love you guys!

Greyson and the Girls

Pajama party at our house! Well, only for a few hours. The girls found time to set up a store and sell paper products - envelopes, paper airplanes, and fans. The Tinies went to bed early and the Bigs and Littles stayed up giggling until past bedtime. They did all fall asleep before Ceci and Dave came back to get them. The funniest part was watching Ellie - in an "I'm awake but really sleeping" state try to crawl into bed with Sydney - taking her blanket and everything. Greyson was completely outnumbered - get used to it Grey - Aunt Becky is not helping the ratio!

Greyson and Piper were so funny to watch. Greyson tried to steal anything that Piper was playing with. He is lucky for now that she is so willing to share! They had a good time together - Greyson followed her everywhere:)

Happy Birthday baby James

Wow, five years ago today...and still close to our hearts.