when things backfire

It all ended with a sigh from him and a "Why does everything I do seem to backfire?"
Me, "Oh, nothing bac..."
Silence.
In fact, quite technically, things did backfire tonight.

911, flames, firetrucks and all.
As I started my nightly ritual of blog checks and the local news, I heard a crackling noise. Muting the tv, I really heard a crackling noise. Jumping up to the window, I saw HUGE flames on the side of our property. When I say HUGE, I mean it. Taller than our house flames. Not a second to analyze, just pick up the phone and dial 911, flames.

On the side of our property are, (were), very tall, very wide, very ugly shrubs. Earlier in the day, (like 5 hours earlier), my husband set out on a few Honey-Do tasks. Burn a few weeds here, burn a few weeds there. Wonderful smokey smell in the crisp cool air and dried ugly weeds around the yard no more. Hooray!
Who knew that while the kids were playing fire trucks and fire fighters in the house, things were smoldering and brewing outside. The kids rarely play with the toy firetrucks & firehouse.

Irony. Love it. Loathe it.

Within minutes, before any of the rural volunteer firemen could arrive, the flames had all but disappeared. My panic & the dispatchers' instructions to describe the fire were contained too. The shrubs are near our "pump house" and well. Somehow, we now have no water. Hopefully the electrician will be here ASAP. Until he does arrive though, the dirty dishes that I chose not to do right after dinner, (or lunch, for that matter), will be hidden away in an undisclosed location.

I have always thought that I could play it cool in an emergency.

Yeah...um.....not so much. This wasn't even an emergency, emergency. There was a chance the house could have caught on fire, but I had ample time to get the kids out. No one was in grave danger, yet I still couldn't form complete, coherent sentences with the 911 dispatcher.

"How high are the flames ma'am?"
Uh....ah....um...high!
"Are there any structures nearby ma'am?"
um...well...our house...you need to get a fire truck here....yes!
"How close is your home to the flames?"
I duuuuu....nnnnooo... maybe um, uh...20 feet...um...or...

Seriously. The flames started to die down as fast as they had flared up, but at that point, with no water in case things started up again, the firemen soaked and soaked and soaked the side of our yard. You know what is really ridiculous? The whole time, (once it was it was clear we were out of danger), I was thinking, I should take a picture of this to post. The firemen putting out the fire that no longer existed, the kids staring intently out the window at the truck's lights. The neighbors SLOWLY driving by to see why a fire truck was spraying water at a pretend fire (It was there, I promise! It was really big, bad, and scary too- just not for long.) I digress.
Where was I? Oh, yes- pictures. My camera was out in the car. Somehow, I didn't think the firemen would appreciate the need for me to go out into the bitter cold to fetch my camera for some great blogging photos. Oh-well. Use your imagination. Picture a huge firetruck and 4 men fighting a blaze no bigger than the flame of a candle. Nice.
And all that effort will cost us a pretty penny in an insurance premium.
Really though, I am beyond thankful that nothing tragic occurred. Losing the big ugly shrubs only costs me a little privacy from the neighbors, but that's ok. I like them. Maybe they will let me wash some dirty dishes before Grandma comes to see the damage. After all, they helped me out with my last non-emergency too.

Oh- and just a tip: You know how they always say shrubs area fire hazard. Well, "they" are right. I can't even imagine if that had all been right next to my home. Reality is, I can imagine, and that is all I have been doing. There have been more than a few prayers of gratitude around here tonight.

Please forgive the incoherent sentences in this post. My hands are still trembling and apparently, so is my brain.

Have you ever had to dial 911? Did you keep it calm and collected? Panicked and frazzled?