The day after the fire, and day 2 of halloween decor feature
I'm still kind of frazzled from yesterday. It was a long day of not doing much but standing around in the chilled air, talking to neighbors and wondering what I could do for the family. The restoration/building company arrived around 7-ish (p.m.) and began boarding up the home. They worked until 10-ish.
For several hours after the fire while the fire department was cleaning up, I was unable to go anywhere (and I did have a place to go and a thing to do, but thankfully someone else was able to do it for me) because of the fire chief's truck in my driveway, the seven firetrucks up and down my street, and the barricades set up on the three possible exits from our street. After the fire department left, we started getting people driving through the street, gawking. I would be curious too, except I might not drive right down the street and stare. We also had gawkers walk in while the fire department was working. The people stood around on my yard--I didn't mind the impromptu fire-fighter camp set up underneath our oak tree, but I was nervous about unidentified and unfamiliar seedy looking adult males that milled around the front of my house who I was sure did not have anything to do with the clean-up effort, at least in any legal way.
Matt said he saw the cloud of smoke during his school field trip to the local pond and wondered whose house it was. I don't think that he was worried that it was our house. Jimmy said he heard from a friend at lunch, whose sister texted him about the fire. Paul and Hayley heard nothing about it at school. And now Hayley's asthma is acting up--she had a cold and then all the smoke and ash in the air around here has triggered a minor attack. I'm keeping her home today because she needs the nebulizer machine every four hours or so. *Sigh*
Today I babysit, which is a good thing. It's an excuse to stay home doing homebound things that did not get done yesterday.
I still want to feature a Halloween decoration today, mostly to get myself back into a normal frame of mind (I just can't seem to stop picturing the fire eating the neighbors' garage and house, or stop hearing the young woman screaming and worrying about how to calm her down) (see?).
So this is me trying to think of something else. Something happy. Happy like pumpkins. Pumpkins make me happy; this wall hanging makes me happy.
Sister Jen made this for me. I keep it up through Thanksgiving because it isn't a specifically Halloween piece of art. The piecing technique is called "foundation piecing" and looks difficult to understand, but it sure makes a nice piece.
For several hours after the fire while the fire department was cleaning up, I was unable to go anywhere (and I did have a place to go and a thing to do, but thankfully someone else was able to do it for me) because of the fire chief's truck in my driveway, the seven firetrucks up and down my street, and the barricades set up on the three possible exits from our street. After the fire department left, we started getting people driving through the street, gawking. I would be curious too, except I might not drive right down the street and stare. We also had gawkers walk in while the fire department was working. The people stood around on my yard--I didn't mind the impromptu fire-fighter camp set up underneath our oak tree, but I was nervous about unidentified and unfamiliar seedy looking adult males that milled around the front of my house who I was sure did not have anything to do with the clean-up effort, at least in any legal way.
Matt said he saw the cloud of smoke during his school field trip to the local pond and wondered whose house it was. I don't think that he was worried that it was our house. Jimmy said he heard from a friend at lunch, whose sister texted him about the fire. Paul and Hayley heard nothing about it at school. And now Hayley's asthma is acting up--she had a cold and then all the smoke and ash in the air around here has triggered a minor attack. I'm keeping her home today because she needs the nebulizer machine every four hours or so. *Sigh*
Today I babysit, which is a good thing. It's an excuse to stay home doing homebound things that did not get done yesterday.
I still want to feature a Halloween decoration today, mostly to get myself back into a normal frame of mind (I just can't seem to stop picturing the fire eating the neighbors' garage and house, or stop hearing the young woman screaming and worrying about how to calm her down) (see?).
So this is me trying to think of something else. Something happy. Happy like pumpkins. Pumpkins make me happy; this wall hanging makes me happy.
Sister Jen made this for me. I keep it up through Thanksgiving because it isn't a specifically Halloween piece of art. The piecing technique is called "foundation piecing" and looks difficult to understand, but it sure makes a nice piece.
Comments
Sounds like it was quite a day for you yesterday. Is the family who's house burned down staying somewhere else now? What a terrible thing to go through. I don't blame you for not wanting to do anything.