I got to sleep in today for the first time in awhile, and it was very nice. My grandmother called me early this morning to let me know that she did not need me to sit with my grandfather today because he was having a "bad day", and she did not want to leave him. So I went back to sleep until around 11:00am, when my mother invited me to run errands with her.
My mother, of course, had a large list of things she needed to get done today, so she had me create a To Do list for her (in no particular order):
- Get lunch for my Michael (my little brother), dad, and Bruce (the guy that works with my dad)
- Go to Lowe's to pick out hardwood floors for the laundry room, bathroom, and my parents' bedroom
- Go to the bank to make a few deposits
- Go to work to deal with some issues
- Go to Staples to buy a new printer
- Pick up Patrick (the oldest of my younger brothers) from school...(my sister, Brittney, picked up Michael from school)
- Go to the health food store to get some ingredients for smoothies (Yum!)
- Haircut (for me)
- Go go the car wash
We got everything done on the list, except for the last two items, before it was time to go to the yoga studio to set up for tonight's class. My mom taught tonight, and it was an amazing class! Very different from the Teen Hot Yoga class that I go to every Sunday night from 7:30pm-9:00pm. There were only three people there besides me, my sister, and my mom. Although the rountine was the same, it was a nice change to have a very small class tonight, as opposed to the very large teen class.
Oh my gosh! I almost forgot! The entire fire department came to my house on Tuesday night, around 9:30pm. My mom, dad, and I were all downstairs when we started smelling smoke. We looked everywhere but could not find a source, so after almost five minutes my mom called 911. They dispatched the fire department and some police officers, and told us to get everyone outside immediately. Within two minutes, we had our entire street blocked off, with the policemen directing traffic on the streets next to ours, and an entire fire squad searching our house for the source of the very potent smoke-smell. The team was absolutely amazing--they were like "a well-oiled machine", as my parents called them. But not one of them hesitated upon arrival: each had a job, knew what is was, and was not going to let anything stop them from executing it. (That included getting the fire hose positioned to spray directly into our front door, filling the hose with water, and making sure it was working properly by testing the hose on the trees and bushes beside the house---It was very exciting.) I became kind of nervous when reporters and photographers started showing up, along with a mob of neighbors.
Finally, after forty-five minutes of investigation and making sure it was not a structure fire, (with flames inside the walls of our all-wood house, that cannot be seen until the damage is unstoppable), the firemen discovered the source of the odor to be our dryer. (We were very surprised at this because our dryer was serviced a week before, by our local appliance-repair company.) To be sure, they turned the dryer on, and it immediately began smoking profusely. The chief came to the conclusion that it was a motor fire, and ordered his men to remove it from our house completely. Unfortunately, the only way to remove the dryer was to remove the washing machine first; but, fortunately the problem was much less scary than it could have been. Before all of the people and action left, the chief fireman got some information on us, as well as the appliance-repair company, and informed us on how we could get a copy of our filed case.
In the end, everyone was safe, and my gossip-y sister was jealous she missed all of the "drama". (Because she was out with her boyfriend-of-the-month.)
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