dinner, a show & fireworks

Dear hubby and I ran out to a local restaurant for a quick supper, only to find the town Christmas parade about to begin. We slipped in a back way. The parking lot was full, but the place was empty. We watched the parade from our table, then wound around the long way home to avoid the traffic. I'm not quite ready to admit it is Christmastime, but the little parade was sweet. Lots of pick-um-up trucks and trailers loaded with tons of kids in Santa hats throwing candy to everyone along the streets. About a half hour after we got home, we heard lots of heavy engine noises outside the house. Car doors slamming. My curiousity finall got the best of me. I saw police lights flashing at the north end of the street, just past our driveway. But the people were walking past our house. I went to the other end of the house and was faced with this view out my son's bedroom window to the south: Actually, the view I saw was much worse than this photo, which I took about five minutes later and does not truly capture the height of the flames and the overwhelming glow of it all set so close to our home!! We went running outside (with our cameras). I found myself thinking as I ran around the house that I was so glad hubby had spent the day getting the pine needles off the roof. There is nothing but trees between our place and the fire. I was also praying thanks that there was no wind! Brand new house. Not quite finished. No one moved in yet. There's a joke around here about Bubba's wiring work. Well, it's a joke to us anyway. We overheard a conversation just a couple months after we moved here. Two men were talking. One asked the other about the house which had just been rebuilt after a fire. The other commented that Bubba had done the electrical work on this new house too -- seems Bubba did electric work on the side. As for this fire, sure seems like it coule be suspicious? The fire department and police were occupied with the parade... could someone have picked a better time? This all happened about 6:30pm. The engine noise has only stopped withing the last hour. What hubby and I are both curious about though, is that neither the fire nor police sirens were sounded The smell brought back memories from the summer between my junior and senior years of high school. Our kitchen caught fire the day after school let out. It took all summer to get the house back in order from the damage. I'm heading to bed now, more than a little anxious about having bad dreams. LC