Nothing like getting a good blogging rhythm going and then disappearing for two weeks, #amirite? It’s been a very crazy couple of weeks; we had Jay’s birthday last week (more on that in another post) and Zachary is on Day 6 of being home sick, though he’s finally on the mend. He had a high fever for 5 days (he hit 105 on Sunday). They originally suspected the start of an ear infection and strep was the cause, then we were back yesterday (Monday) and they tested him for mono, but it’s just viral tonsillitis. The week before that, Alex was eating a lot more frequently due to the 6-week growth spurt, so needless to say, it’s been a sleepless two weeks and I kind of feel like crying right now, haha.
Anyway, last Monday, we had some excitement around these parts. Around 3 p.m., I was nursing Alex in his room when I heard a loud bang outside, like a gunshot or a car backfiring. Jay had taken off for his birthday and was downstairs cleaning up and organizing his office/Studio West-er(ous)/toy room, so I thought perhaps he dropped something and called him. He didn’t answer, so I figured I’d wait another minute or so before getting up and checking things out. After another minute, I heard two more loud bangs in a row. At this point, I started to get up when Jay called me back from downstairs (I wasn’t shouting and didn’t get up right away because I was trying to get Alex fed and down for a nap). He asked if I was calling about the bangs and I responded, “Yes. Was that you?” He said it wasn’t and that he was wondering if a car had backfired. I decided to get up and investigate.
I walked out of Alex’s room and through the dining room windows, I saw the motherf*cking MAILTRUCK WAS ON FIRE.
“The mail truck! Fire!!” I yelled into the phone.
“What?” Jay replied, clearly confused by the very fast escalation in my tone and volume.
“The mail truck is on fire!!! Look outside! Fire! Call 911! Call someone!”
At this point, Jay had gone outside and seen the flames. He ran upstairs while dialing 911. For some frustrating reason, they were having trouble helping him. I heard him spelling the name of our street and trying to explain what was going on more than once.
I didn’t know what to do and it was seriously burning up in big flames right on our property line. I put Alex down in his crib and decided to run outside to see if the driver was still in there or if anyone needed help at all. I didn’t really have a plan, but I didn’t want someone to be seriously or mortally injured in front of my house, especially without trying to help them.
Thankfully, when I ran out front, a firetruck was already there and preparing to put it out. The driver was standing near the truck. He had seen smoke coming out of the hood while turning around at the end of the street. He pulled over and got out, grabbed his phone and called 911 just as the truck burst into flames. The bangs that I heard were likely the tires blowing.
It only took the firemen a few minutes to put the truck out and another few minutes to spray water on the embers in the woods that lead up to our deck and house. If the woods caught fire, who knows how fast it would have spread. Thank goodness we’ve had a lot of rain lately that things weren’t very dry. Even though it all happened within 15 minutes’ time, it was a very exciting 15 minutes! They towed it away within two hours and all that is left is a burnt mark on the ground. Zach has made me re-tell him the story no fewer than 50 times at this point, haha.
Everything in the mail truck was likely lost. We had ordered a new playmat for Alex that was on there. My grandma’s birthday card to Jay was also burned up. Those are the only two things that we knew about, but with medical bills coming in for Alex’s birth, who knows what else were there? I’m just very grateful that no one was hurt and nothing burned down.
