Fire! Fire!

You know how things just seem to inexplicably happen to me? I think of myself as a fairly boring, regular person. A stay at home mom whose daily highlights include such goodies as "What's Elmo's topic of the day?" and "Wonder what Elizabeth will wear on the View?" I get excited for sales at CVS and spend my free naptimes loafing around on Facebook or eating cookies. I wipe bottoms and scrape crusties off of faces and wear my hair in a ponytail because I don't have time to fix it. But somehow, the weirdness still finds me. It had been a while, it really had.

Eddie was here visiting this week and we had just come in from a mall excursion. (Found H&M, yeah!) We all ate some lunch and I went upstairs to put Piglet down for a nap. While reading him stories, I heard the phone ring, but didn't answer it. I closed Piglet's door and headed downstairs to feed Little Piggie. Soon, the phone rang again, just as I heard a loud roaring sound outside. It was Mr. Pigs on the phone. "The fire department is coming! Is the house on fire? The security system people just called me!" Uh....

I looked upstairs, no smoke. I cocked my head and listened keenly, no alarms. I sniffed my hound nose, focused, but no smoke smell. "Hey, Eddie, will you run down to the basement and make sure it's not on fire? Thanks!" A panicked look crossed her face as her mind raced to be sure she hadn't left a flat iron on. She dashed downstairs and confirmed a lack of fire. (Though she did remember her elementary school fire skills and touched the doorknobs first to make sure they weren't hot. She was also ready to stop, drop, and roll if necessary.)

I hastened to my feet, detaching Little Piggie and snapping all appropriate harnesses back into position. Two full sized fire trucks had just pulled up to my curb and firemen were ready to extinguish my house. Little Piggie and I walked down to meet them, completely confused. After a short conversation, together we determined that the house was not, in fact, on fire and we had no idea why they were here. They seemed skeptical, as though I might summon the fire department for my own personal entertainment, and probably annoyed because it cost the city $4,000 in gas to drive to my house, but I have no idea what brought them here.

I have since talked to my security service and they have no idea why it happened. The security report that the fire button was pressed from the house keypad. Eddie has assured me that she didn't go on a button-pushing spree while I was putting Piglet down for a nap. A tech is coming out tomorrow to check out the situation. In the meantime, I have met several neighbors this week wanting to know what was up with the fire brigade at my door. It was a bold move to make friends, but maybe summoning the fire department is the way to meet some people around here?

Aren't you so grateful that Eddie is always hovering at the edge of excitement with her camera in hand?