Jump Start (5): Burning Down the House

Burning Down the House   The fires out in California are truly frightening.  If you had to evacuate quickly, and everyone was safe, what things would you grab?

 

Two summers ago, I think it was August of 2016, Himself and I were sitting on the patio having our coffee and breakfast.  We had just gotten back from our weekly Saturday morning hike with the hairy beast.  We started hearing sirens.  The fire department is southeast of us, maybe two miles as the crow flies.  The sirens then started coming from all directions.  Since our little township has a volunteer department, larger incidents - fires and accidents, and such - require the assistance of neighboring departments.  This sounded like one of those.  That couldn't be good.

 

We found out later that a house roughly a mile to the west caught fire and the occupants, warned by their smoke detectors, all got out safely.  It took the fire departments the better part of the day to get the fire under control and then extinguished.  The family, parents and their two young daughters, lost everything they owned.

 

It seems that there has been a large fire somewhere in the township annually for the last few years.  Last summer a garage and part of a house in the opposite direction of the fire above was the latest to succumb to flames.  A few years before that, another township resident lost his barn and the cars he was restoring to fire.

 

All of that got me thinking.  If I had to make a quick getaway, what would I grab? 

 

Most everything in our home is just that, a thing.  Heck, if all my clothes disappeared, I might actually be glad.  Getting to start my wardrobe over could be a plus.  Furniture, books, dishes, appliances and such could all be replaced. 

 

There are a couple of items, though, that given the chance, I would grab.  The very first item I would gather is my engagement ring.  I don't always wear it as my fingers have "grown" just a little since Himself first put it on me.  That ring represents the start of us. 

 

If I could get to it, I would try to take this computer, or at least the hard drive on which it is backed up.  The computer itself could be replaced, and the way it has been working lately, probably should be.  All of our pictures are digital these days and those I would love to have.  They are memories, moments in time, things that intrigued us, made us smile.

 

The other item I would take is my quilt.  Mom was an amazing seamstress.  She made all sorts of clothes and household items.  As much as she sewed, she never took up quilting, that was my thing.  But, about a year before she died, she gave quilting a shot.  She picked one of the most intricate and difficult patterns I've seen and probably never will try.  The last Christmas present she gave me was the quilt you see below. 

 

 

 

I pray none of us ever, ever needs to make that mad dash. 

AMDG