Hello World!

Yes a proper start for this post, hope I don’t get in trouble with WordPress with the image but it seems appropriate for this post. I have been away from my blog for some time and finally got the resources and time to get back to writing my epic blog. A nice little reminder from WordPress to renew my blog got me chugging again (Thanks WordPress). While many things have taken place and I plan to write them up soon the fact of the matter is we had a huge tragedy which turned into untold blessings.

My house burnt to the ground, in a epic trilogy of bad luck. If you follow my blog you will see some posts about our Dad time to the wonderful place called Lake Crowley. Each year my wife and her sister have sis time, and I normally take my boys and go fishing. However this year when making plans we were unable to acquire a camp spot and thus we didn’t go. The boys were very sad, but since this year my wife would travel to her sisters we decided to stay home and be; well boys. Boy, oh boy did we boy it up for sure this time!

It started as any other normal day, the boys were off from school so while I was scheduled to work they stayed home playing video games and wait eagerly for my return (at least I like to think so). My eldest son called me and offered to cook dinner; hamburgers. I said this would be great and I would be home soon so go ahead and start, as I would be home by the time he was finished. Below is Isaac when he was two, one of my favorite photos of him, which no longer exists except in digital format. The Apple cloud is a life saver in some respects.

So here it goes; I have in the past devised a fire plan with my boys a basic plan to meet at a designated spot on our property, the mailbox! What I never did however was go over the types of fire danger, yes we all learned something in this one!

So, as my boy was cooking on a griddle he was not familiar with but more efficient as it could cook many hamburgers in a single time, he made a mistake with the temperature setting by turning it to high 450 degrees. All was good until he became distracted, most likely a fly…hehe. In this process the hamburger transformed from beef to a hot coal, it then caught on fire thus lighting the grease on the griddle. Well in his haste to put out the fire he proceeded to throw the griddle in the sink and then applied water.

This is where I failed him, as applying water is well the most explosive element for a grease fire. It then became a fireball engulfing the kitchen curtains. We also live in the desert so the swap cooler was on pushing the flames out the window towards the porch which quickly became engulfed as well.

My son then did the most important thing ever, he grabbed his brothers who were oblivious to the event playing on the computer, streaming none the less with live video. Once his brothers were outside he then returned to grab the fire extinguisher, however this type of extinguisher was no match for the fire at this point as the entire kitchen ceiling was now ablaze. He then ran outside just before the porch became compromised.

When this happened the porch collapsed sheering off the top of the BBQ propane tank which then became a flame thrower. This quickly melted the front doors (steel) then lit the dining room on fire in epic portion. During this time I had just left work and began to get frantic phone calls from my son, wife, and in-laws. I looked up to the sky in the general direction of my home and quickly saw the 300 foot plus billowing clouds. As I began to drive home (very quickly) I became trapped as fire trucks and police zoomed to my home leaving me no choice but to pull over repeatedly. Upon my arrival the house was putting off heat from over 200 feet away. The sounds it made can be described as a machine gun going off as all my ammo from various firearms went off.

This day would prove quite challenging but very rewarding as you never know who really has your back until the shit hits the fan. I cannot stress this enough, people I called friends became life long friends that day as almost everyone I was close to arrived and proceeded to take care of me and my boys. From immediately buying clothes, food and taking care of our dogs. We did however loose our preciouses kittens whom I have no pictures of, this would turn out to be the saddest part of the whole experience.

My wife was getting feedback from people by this time and was over 500 miles away and feeling very helpless. I told her there was nothing she could do and implored her to continue with her visit. As coming home would change nothing but add stress to a tragic situation. I immediately called the insurance company and within hours they had money, lodging implemented for me and my boys. We however choose to stay with the boys grandparents as this was such a traumatic event and they insisted.

Below is my lovie helping cut cords and such during the demo.

The picture below is centered on the kitchen window.

The good news is we had the proper insurance needed to recover and take care of my family. The next day we checked into a hotel and went swimming as this was our ‘mom’ vacation none the less. The next two weeks were in fact challenging living in a hotel room, but once again our friends stood by our sides bringing dinners every night and countless donations for clothing, pet food, and everything possibly imaginable. We were truly blessed and felt the huge outpour of love by all!

The insurance company then found us a home fully furnished where our pet dogs Rosie and Charlie could all be. The insurance also paid the full policy in a matter of ten days allowing us to clear the mortgage, buy needed items. We choose not to rebuild and sell the property and buy a new home.

Being a US Army veteran I was able to acquire a mortgage quickly, and being aCSguy with many years of experience I was qualified for a much larger home.

We found our home quickly and it has been an amazing home to date. We also took the insurance money and completely renovated the inside picking the colors. It would also be big enough for each boy to have their own room. As the prior home two of my boys had to share a room, they were very excited about this as they are becoming teens whom want little interaction with Mom and Dad so to speak.

The only thing that remained was removal of the old home from the property so it could be sold. I then purchased a toy, a dump trailer! This trailer with the help of some very generous friends dismantled and dumped over 85,000 pounds of our past. It took a week, in 100-114 degree heat but we got the job done. This is the only part the insurance company failed us at, as the disposal fees were much more then the amount provided. So I took the funds and purchased the TOY!

Soon after was my sons graduation and a fitting way to end this post as life will always throw us challenges but one that that remains is family. Son, Mom and Dad love you and will always love you. Even when we are faced with huge life challenges. We purchased for his graduation present the 2005 Ford Mustang below, he was very happy boy this day. He continues to live with us and attend the local community college while working. We couldn’t be more proud.

Here is my boy all grew up with his grandfather.

Until next time aCSguy.