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I got a call on my cell phone this afternoon. The caller ID said the caller was from a business that is right next door to my kids' daycare center. "Hmmm," I thought to myself. I picked up and it was Miss Donna, the woman who takes care of all the infants at the daycare. All the infants include my daughter Annabel. "Hi. We had a small grease fire in the kitchen here. Everyone's ok, Annie's right here with me. But ya gotta come pick up your kids."
Huh. I tell her that Jake's bus is coming in about 15 minutes and I'll be there right after that. And that's that. I don't think anything more about it. That last sentence was foreshadowing so you might want to read it again. Yeah. It doesn't look like much, but it's the whole point of this entry so I thought I might point it out, so you don't feel you've completely wasted your time by the time you get to the end of this. Ok. Where was I? Oh yeah. I get in the truck and sit at Jake's bus stop waiting for him to arrive. And quite frankly, I'm a little pissed. Because I'm in the middle of writing this utility program for a guy at work and there is no way I'm going to finish it with all three kids at home. Jake is really good at keeping himself occupied for the 90 minutes or so between his bus coming and me ending work. He does his homework or plays on his computer. And even adding Bobby to that equation would work because Bobby and Jake get along pretty well. Or at least enough to let me work relatively interruption-free for awhile. But all three of them together is just to much to ask. Annie requires a great deal of attention and having to change gears to give it to her irked me a little. I mean, I love her, but c'mon. I was doing some pretty cool coding. How geeky am I that I would rather code a stupid program than spend 90 extra minutes with my daughter?
Anyway. I go to pickup the kids and as I'm driving there a thought occurs to me. I don't have Annie's car seat. I usually carry Annabel into school in her car seat and then slip the car seat under her crib to wait there until I take her home. I'm lazy like that. But in the middle of evacuating 90 kids from a burning daycare center, I'm sure the last thing that the teacher were thinking about was getting my car seat for me. Cool! I get to worm my way into the center. I mean, I have to be able to go in and get the car seat. Otherwise, I'd be breaking the law.
As I predicted, there was no car seat. I left Jake with the teachers and kids - he was already having a great time playing with Bobby and the rest of them in the short time we had been there. So I walk back over to the main entrance of the daycare. There are still all sorts of emergency vehicles including a police car parked right in front of the door. I politely ask the officer how I could get back into the building because I need the car seat to take my daughter home. He said that there was "no way they're gonna let you in there". Well, I said, I can't *legally* take my daughter home then. He heaved a big cop sigh and put down that cool silver metal notebook thingy they all write their reports on and got out of the car. He realized that if he didn't get me in the building, he was making me do something illegal. He pointed me in the direction of the head fire guy and had me explain my situation to him. The head fire guy said "No problem. Go on in. Watch your step, it's really wet." I looked at the cop. Then I went to Annie's room and got my stuff. It was really wet. And stinky in there. But I couldn't see any damage so it must have all been contained to the actual kitchen only. On the way out I asked the head fire guy what it would take for them to open up again. He said there was section of wall that needed to be replaced, a pipe that needed to be replaced and basically a whole lotta clean up.
I walked back over to where the kids where being kept until moms and dads could come and pick them up. And I saw a whole lot of worried faces. Some tearful. And it hit me. These parents are really worked up about this fire. I thought about it and I guess I could see their point. I mean, there was a fire in the rooms right next to where their children were. Getting a call like that could be quite a shock I guess. But it didn't really hit me (remember the foreshadowing?). I mean, Miss Donna was calling me to tell me about the fire. If there was something horribly, tragically wrong, the police would have been calling me. I don't know it was me, or something in the matter-of-fact way she told me over the phone, but it never even hit me to be worried. Especially after the fact. But some of these parents were obviously upset. I can't blame them, I just didn't feel the same way.
I figured I would try to talk to Bobby about it to see if he had any concerns over what happened. He is three, after all - it could have an effect on him. But I really didn't have anything to worry about. I asked him about the fire and he said "what fire?" Ok. No lingering effect here. He is three, after all.
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