4/13/10

The good news is that we were insured. The better news was that no one, including our dogs or our 40 chickens, were hurt.

The bad news is that it was a serious fire. A florescent light fixture in the basement went supernova. As Paul Simon so aptly said, "one man's ceiling is another man's floor" when one has a fire in the ceiling, the floor above also has problems.

Not to mention smoke damage.

OMG. The carcinogens make your eyes water and the smell still takes your breath away two weeks later. Streaks run up the walls and long black cobwebs decorate each room. There is a layer of soot on everything which does not come clean easily. Mostly it smears and stinks.

In the middle of a disaster, we all have inappropriate thoughts. Here was mine. As the fireman darted in and out of the house, battling the blaze, I'm thinking. "I'm glad the cleaning woman came two days before so the firemen won't think I'm a bad housekeeper." Really.

So imagine my horror when I finally see the interior with the long black cobwebs. We may have a few cobwebs, but nothing like this. But the fire inspector tells me, "Those aren't cobwebs. Those are electrically charged partials."

Tell me again why I didn't pay more attention in Physics class.