Last Night

Last night we had just turned off the tv, hubby had already dozed off and I was close when the phone rang.  I looked at the clock which read 11:30 (or so).  I picked up the phone and it was my Dad who proceeded to tell me that the house across the pasture and through the woods from us was on fire.  And then someone was knocking on our door to let us know about the fire (I still don't know who the lady was!)  Although it was almost midnight, the wind was still blowing pretty strongly and again, no measurable rainfall since September.  Since you just don't know what a fire will do, Dad suggested that we be prepared.  We started deciding what vehicles we were going to be taking if we had to leave and what we were taking with us.  In no time flat we had our suburban loaded with computer equipment, photo albums, all my jewelry that would be next to impossible to replace (along with what I received of my Mom's).  On a trip to the truck I went out the back door and could see the orange glow of the fire over the treetops.  Very scarey.    Got back in the house and continued packing our medicine, important papers,  etc.  I went and took all of the pictures off the wall and got them put together.  My Dad called back and said that it looked like the fire department (remember, we live in the county so it was the volunteer fire department and local) had everything under control and that we should be ok.  We went down to my Dad's (which was very close to the fire) to see what there was to see but due to the trees, we couldn't see much.  Thankfully the fire was put out completely and our home and land was not in danger.  Unfortunately the house that burned was a victim of arson but luckily it had been abandoned for 8 years and better yet was the fact that no one got hurt.  We found that we could get a lot of stuff ready to go in a short time, that if there is a fire we will take our truck and suburban and leave my poor little car (wouldn't hurt my feelings too bad) but most importantly we realized that with all our packing we forgot about getting any clothes and I forgot my glasses and stuff for my contacts!!
We got back home a little before 1:00 am and I wasn't able to go to sleep until after 2:00 am.  Dad said it took him a while to wind down also.  Hopefully tonight we will not have any excitement.
Again, I ask that if you think about, pray for us to get some rain.  Our state is in a terrible place right now.  There is a huge fire near the DFW metroplex. 
I hope you are having a great week.  :)