Brush Fire

There was a brush fire that got out of control today.  Supposedly it was a controlled burn, but it got so close to our house.  The fire was put out all of six feet from our back fence.  The flames, when they got there, were raising easily seven or eight feet in the air.  The neighborhood was filled with smoke.  It came in so fast.  In the ten minutes it took us to pack up the kids, just in case, it had covered about 150 yards.  I went in the house to get sippy cups for the kids and all I could see out the back window were flames beyond the fence.

I’ll admit, for a split second there I panicked.  I froze.  I stared at those flames and had this absolute dread that my safe-haven, my home was going to be destroyed if they didn’t get those flames out.  I couldn’t bear the thought of that.  Everything was racing through my head, but I couldn’t react.

Out of nowhere, I snapped out of it.  I did what I needed to do and tried to focus on nothing but.  I told Ian to go back outside when he came running in the house, to get in the car where his mom told him to stay so he wouldn’t see the flames leaping so close to home.  I actually kept my cool surprisingly well.  By the time I did what I needed to do, a truck had already swept by and put the fire out, because the Army is good like that when there’s a fire on post, and our back yard borders the base.  Thankfully there was no damage, but it was a good scare for all of us.

Well, that set the emotional mood for the day.  I was all stressed and wacky for the rest of the day.  I don’t do well with high energy events like that.  I kind of broke down.  I cried over things I needed to cry about.  I stressed over stupid things.  Now I suddenly feel better.

Now all that remains of the day is the heavy scent of smoke upon the air and the exhaustion from having poured out all those pent up emotions.  I feel like I could actually sleep tonight.  That would be a good thing.

~*~Rave~*~