I'm Not From Ohio

This is the song that has been running in my head all day long today: Fire by the Ohio Players.

Why this song you ask? Because we had a small electrical fire today in the house. Yes, a fire. And no, thankfully no one was hurt.

We were hosting our play group get-together today so before everyone arrived Gusi, the housekeeper and I were in the kitchen getting snacks ready. As I peeled mandarins I noticed this strange smell in the kitchen. It was definitely coming from the water distiller but since we had just had it cleaned a few days before, I thought this was that same chemical-type smell and continued to peel more mandarins. Finally, the smell was getting worse so I walked over to the distiller and saw a small fire growing inside the big metallic box.

We've had problems with getting our chemicals to properly clean the distiller and when we finally did it had already started to leak. The technicians came by and promised to fix it but about two weeks went by and nothing was done. When it did get done, it was obviously bad work since the thing went up like a Roman candle.

I quickly turned one of the electrical switches to the distiller off, told the housekeeper to unplug it as well, and ran to get the fire extinguisher. Gusi, however, had other ideas. He knew something was up but wasn't sure what so he ran after me crying to pick him up, trembling. I managed to get him in one arm and the fire extinguisher in the other but as soon as I got back the fire was dying down. I let it put itself out and then called PapaGus who called the maintenance people and gave them a piece of his mind.

It was a crazy morning but I hope that tomorrow is much easier. One should be so lucky!