Reminding us that we need house insurance

At 5:30 am today the power went out. That means that both computers, the floor fan and the air conditioner stopped. The sudden silence woke both of us. That is when we noticed another noise. A noise that sounded very much like a water hose spraying the side of a house. Glasses were located and placed on the respective faces. We peered out the bedroom window to see this. The picture above was taken from our bedroom window. The building on fire is directly across the street from Quality Bakery (which you can see on the left) and our house is right behind the bakery. Ron went outside to get the cellphone out of the truck and to get some more pictures. The really bizarre thing is that other than the noise of water hitting the building it was very quiet. Occasionally a firefighter on the scene would say something loud enough for me to hear but no sirens, no screaming, no nothing other than the sound of water. I wonder if the power had not gone out if we would have even noticed until morning.
After setting the alarm on the cell phone we eventually went back to sleep. At 10am the power was still out and the fire trucks were still out on the street. I proceeded to get ready for work on 5 hours of sleep (i generally need 8 hours to function like a normal person). I then try to go to work. Try being the key word. Obviously 2nd street would be blocked off because fire trucks were still there. So I pulled out of the alley to our parking area onto Washington Ave and instead of turning right to get onto 2nd street I turned left to get onto 1st street at the end of the block. I was surprised to find that the road was also blocked there. This means that I was unable to get off of our segement of Washington Ave. So then I had to call work and tell them that I was not going to be in today. I then had to call my mother in law who was stopping by at 1:30pm to pick up my husband and puppy for a vet appointment. She had to park several blocks away and we had to walk to get to her vehicle. In the end the power did not come back on until around 5:30pm during the demolition of the shell of a building that was left. According to the news 7 of the 11 people rescued from the apartments of the first and second floor were taken to the hospital. At least one person jumped from the third floor to escape the fire and broke both legs. Which brings me back to the title of this post. We need to get homeowners' insurnace on this house. If the fire had spread we could have lost everything. Even if it was just exterior damage like the building next to the one destroyed we would have no way of replacing siding or making repairs. Homeowners' Insurance is now near the top of my list of things to get asap.

On being an adult

In this picture there are a couple things that are going to (and have already) cost me lots of money. Having our first dog (the 3 year white german shepherd) has been a great joy to me. I never had a dog until we got Coda and I must admit that for several months I was not so happy about having a dog. There was much destroying of possessions and lack of sleep overall. I love her dearly today though and cannot imagine life without her. I am now a converted Dog Person. So much so that my husband recently talked me into getting a second dog, a welsh corgi we named Kirby (also pictured). Unfortunately having dogs means visits to the vet that are not cheap, buying Frontline flea stuff that is also not cheap, paying taxes on the dogs which is not that expensive just more irritating that anything else and last but not least dog food and dog toys which are not expensive but are a continuous cost. I love my Coda and I am fast forming a love for Kirby but they are big money black holes.

Which leads me to the other thing in the picture that cost money, having a house. In this picture it is illustrated by seeing the fence and yard. The fence was put up three years ago and was supposed to season for a year before having a stain applied to it. We were supposed to stain it last summer but didn't due to finances. (also we tend to be a bit lazy) Now the wood is getting grey and will soon start splitting. My mother in law spent ALOT of money having that fence put up and doesn't want to see it ruined. So we went to Lowe's last fall. We bought fence cleaner (because the stain specifically stated that cleaning before hand would improve the longevity of our fence) along with a sprayer for cleaner. The spray reminds me of a frumpy super soaker. We then picked up some samples of various colors of stain and priced how much we would need. We did this last fall and just went back to Lowe's this weekend for vinyl lattice that will keep the puppy from falling of the back porch. While at Lowe's I consulted my notes and discovered that a gallon of stain has gone up in price by $10 and that the "gallon" can is now slightly less than a gallon. Got hit by the "shrink gun". So I had to revise my estimate for the fence project from $100 to $130. sigh.
We did get the lattice up but we are going to have to buy another section to finish the project. We also got the yard mowed, I am just thankful that we have a fairly small yard. We also had my mother in law, Annette, down to consult on other project that should be on our list. Talk about Overwhelming. The fence is the most important project but soon after we will have to replace the steps to the back porch. Then we will have to get soffit and facia (which is the stuff that they is put on the under side of the roof and down to meet the siding, kinda reminds me of reverse outside crown molding). The soffit and facia will be expensive. We are planning on begging some relatives with roofing experience to help us put it up because if we have to pay to have it installed we are talking over a thousand dollars. We don't have to do this summer but it HAS to be done within the next year or two or it will mess up our roof. If that happens we are looking at 10 thousand dollars. It is really scary. For now that is all I have to say about being adult but rest assured I will having more to say on the subject.

On writing and updating

I feel as if my very first post should be something more grand but I am just testing the waters with this post. More to follow.