One day we could have lived without our whole life long

Today has been an awful day. This afternoon my husband and I were working in the yard deadheading some plants and hoping maybe that will push them into blooming again. They have buds on them. Anyway, we finally reached a stopping point and came back in the house. It was hot as everything...really hot and humid. Hubby went somewhere and I walked to the front to see if something was on fire. We had heard a fire truck while we were outside, but didn't smell anything like smoke. I walked back into the house and was speechless when I saw what to my muddled mind appeared to be...fog. Anyway, it was smoke. My husband tried to drive around to the next street over from us, but was turned away by the fire department. We have friends who live over there so I looked up the address on Google maps...which is a whole other trip when you see your house in living color right there on the internet. Anyway, it was our friends' home that was on fire. The feed is not live so there was no fire or firemen on Googlemaps. Hubby walked around and could see the firemen and our friend talking, but he couldn't get onto
the street to talk to her. Later when he left to go to his parents house, I walked over and things had calmed down a lot. I was able to talk to her for a few minutes to let her know that we are here if they need helping hands or a place to stay....or whatever.

This is the couple who helped us negotiate with the other neighbors about the gigantic shed. I'd do just about anything for them. They are such a nice couple and they have two children. This tragedy brought the old neghborhood officers together again. I called them to let them know. We had gotten pretty close during that year of pure all out *HECK* negotiating with the oil companies to get the best price for letting them take natural gas from underneath our property. Back to the young couple whose home burned today, she didn't exactly know how much damage had occured, but from what I saw it is going to be bad. The enormity of it was just starting to hit her while we were talking. Thank goodness her mother came and was with her when the kids got out of school and came home to a nightmare. I think there were some paintings saved...there were some leaned against a tree. I doubt they got all the legal papers out....and pictures of the children when they were smaller. Oh..my heart goes out to them so much. They are such a nice family.

Maybe, she had everything backed up and saved somewhere safe. I have the pictures of my grandson on a thumb drive, but probably should put them at one of my kids' houses for safer keeping. We have a free safety deposit box with our bank and probably should use it for important papers that would be a hassle and a half to get a copy of.

The other down side to all this is...oh hell..it just keeps on going on as I remember. She works from home a lot so there might have been some of her client's papers around...hopefully not today. The winds were very high today and starting tomorrow evening we will be having very heavy rains again. They were going to get someone out to secure the house so hopefully it won't get any wetter. One of the other women from last year stopped by and she told me all the ceilings are gone from when the firemen poured water onto the house. I don't know where to start to help her...and oh yeah...when she walked in with the fireman she dropped her cell into the water and it is ruined. She uses her blackberry all the time keeping up with her kids and all the things she has going in her life. Maybe if she can get the phone apart and dried out it might work again, but I don't hold much hope for it.

This is one of those days when I REALLY want a cigarette again....even after all this time...and after a fire! I guess it is just so upsetting for bad things to happen to such a nice family. I'm sure their church will have rallied to their side by tomorrow and I don't think it could be any too soon.