Oh Soot!

This has been the month from...well, I don't need to say it. It has to do with fire, which unfortunately, I had just yesterday. Last Friday my harddrive crashed and burned. This Thursday, my daughter lit a fire in the fireplace. The damper was closed, and when smoke began to fill the house she panicked and fled. The fire department came, put it out, and aired out my house. They said I had about 4-feet of clean air, the rest was all smoke.

I filed the insurance claim today. I have a fine layer of black soot and the lovely smell of bonfire all throughout my house. The restoration people will start work at 8:30 Monday morning.

My high school students just finished John Steinbeick's Of Mice & Men and I'm grading their essays this week. The title comes from the Robert Burns' poem and to paraphrase the line, the best laid plans of mice and me often go astray.

Mine plans have certainly gone elsewhere. I'm now behind on everything and I'll have a cleaning crew in my house for 7-8 business days. I had to ask for an extension, the first ever. Life is chaotic and I'm sneezing a lot.

Still, stuff is only stuff. It can be cleaned and replaced. No one is hurt and my daughter has learned a very valuable lesson. I have too. Some months are just like this. First a deer, then a drive, now a disaster.

I'll use it all in a book someday.

Michele