Skating On Thin Ice Without Skates
My husband gave me a really great analogy of our life together. He compared it to skating on thin ice, without skates! I loved that. That is exactly our life together. Without skates, you can't stop very well on the ice, or turn for that matter. You are at the mercy of the ice, and much of the time, you have no control of the direction or the speed, you take. You just have to hunker down and pray.
My husband hasn't had the fortune, or misfortune of bearing witness to many of my calamities. He just sees the aftermath, and listens to the stories. Usually, he laughs and shakes his head and says "Only you."
Last Friday, however, my husband got to share center stage with me.
My husband has a hernia. It has been causing him grief all summer. This past Thursday evening, he actually left work early to go to the ER . He must have been in a lot of pain if he left work. When he arrived home, he laid on the sectional and didn't move. My son, was up by 5:30 am, getting ready to be out the door for work shortly after 6. After collecting his gear and saying farewell, the house was quiet. I didn't want to disturb my husband, so I was reading in our bedroom. I fell asleep.
I awoke to the smell of something burning. I jumped off the bed and ran out into the hall, nose raised into the air, sniffing like a dog! I couldn't smell anything there. Maybe I was dreaming it I thought. I walked to the kitchen and made sure our gas stove hadn't inadvertently been turned on. That does happen sometimes, if you brush up against the front of it the wrong way. The kitchen was fine.
I still felt uneasy so I yelled at my husband and told him something was burning. He, jumped off the sectional immediately. He couldn't smell anything but I knew I smelled smoke. The smoke detector wasn't blaring, but we checked anyway.
We ran upstairs, there was nothing up the first set of 8 steps, but when we made it to the landing and turned to go up the last 3 steps, we could see smoke beginning
to billow out of my son's bedroom door!
My son, I love him, but he uses the floor as a laundry hamper. I could hardly push his door open to get through. The room was completely filled with acrid smoke. We finally pushed our way through the door expecting to see his room on fire. It wasn't, however, smoke was billowing from something beside his bed. My husband, grabbed his matress and hauled it off the frame, and when he did, it caught my leg and I lost my footing. There were clothes on the floor, books, and other things strewn around, so I couldn't get myself balanced. I could hardly speak, the smoke was burning my throat, and my eyes. I heard him say "Open the window, quick!" I still was having a hard time finding a level place to stand. I lunged toward the window, and pulled the curtains over and opened the window. The screen was in the way and I couldn't get it out, so I just pushed on it, tearing it wide open. In my husbands hand was what looked like a crumpled up blanket, smoldering like crazy, with orange embers glowing all through it. I got out of his way, but fell down again with all of the stuff on the floor. My husband, managed to throw the smoking blanket out of the window, down to the ground. Whew!
The blanket landed directly on top of our gas meter! The junction where gas actually is pumped into our house. My husband gasped! " Oh no, not the gas meter!" It fell off right away, onto the driveway directly under my husbands old pick up truck. Another gasp! "Oh no, my truck has a gas leak! The whole neighbourhood will go up!"
I was struggling to get up, and get out into the hall to breathe some fresh air! My husband thought I was overcome with smoke, and I heard him say "Oh great, I have a hernia and I have to haul your fat ass, and mine out of this mess, run downstairs, and pick up a blanket that is probably on fire by now?"
I started to laugh. Why, I'm not sure. Probably because it was such a high stress situation, and the house wasn't on fire! Sounded rational to me! I told my husband to go, I was fine. Down he ran, delicately I might add, which made me laugh even more. I crawled my way out into the hall and managed to get downstairs. He never lost his balance once, I couldn't stay on my feet! I ran outside to see my husband throw the smoking blanket into a large plastic tub. He instructed me to turn the hose on and immerse it in water. I did. I was amazed to still see it smoking! There was literally smoke on the water! I thought that was just a song!
My husband, looking relieved,
aked me " Nothing else was burning, right?" " Uuhhh....else?" I questioned him back. Back up we ran, by now, the room was beginning to clear. We checked everything out thoroughly, my son really needs to clean his room! There was nothing else, although the wall beside his bed had a 4 inch scorched spot on it, and a lamp with the top all black, with the bottom of a melted light bulb still attached. My son, must have turned the light on, to get dressed, probably looking for his clean clothes in the mess, moved the blanket, and it landed on the light. Because it was dark, he must have assumed the light was turned off. That blanket, smoldered there for 2 hours before I smelled it. I unplugged it from the wall and proceeded to open all of the windows.
A few minutes later, my husband and I reconvened out in the backyard. I pulled the burned blanket apart and examined it. Inside, was the rest of the light bulb, a melted mass, stuck to the blanket.
That is when reality caught up with me. It was so close to catching on fire, another 30 seconds and it would have. The burnt embers were floating on top of the water now.
My husband and I sat down, both of us shaking, throats sore from breathing in all of that smoke and thankful to God for being alive. It could have been much worse.
I looked at my shaken husband and I began to laugh, he looked at me and he laughed too. He said "Don't be dragging me into your drama's and freak shows anymore! I don't like it!" Laughing, I told him "Too late!" I was so thankful he was here with me for this bout of crazy! I would have been still struggling to get up!
Yes, our life is a lot like skating on thin ice, without the benefits of skates. We are never sure if we will fall through, fall on our face, or perform a perfect triple axle. It's always interesting.
Like Forrest Gump said, "Life is a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get." Oh how true, how true.
My husband hasn't had the fortune, or misfortune of bearing witness to many of my calamities. He just sees the aftermath, and listens to the stories. Usually, he laughs and shakes his head and says "Only you."
Last Friday, however, my husband got to share center stage with me.
My husband has a hernia. It has been causing him grief all summer. This past Thursday evening, he actually left work early to go to the ER . He must have been in a lot of pain if he left work. When he arrived home, he laid on the sectional and didn't move. My son, was up by 5:30 am, getting ready to be out the door for work shortly after 6. After collecting his gear and saying farewell, the house was quiet. I didn't want to disturb my husband, so I was reading in our bedroom. I fell asleep.
I awoke to the smell of something burning. I jumped off the bed and ran out into the hall, nose raised into the air, sniffing like a dog! I couldn't smell anything there. Maybe I was dreaming it I thought. I walked to the kitchen and made sure our gas stove hadn't inadvertently been turned on. That does happen sometimes, if you brush up against the front of it the wrong way. The kitchen was fine.
I still felt uneasy so I yelled at my husband and told him something was burning. He, jumped off the sectional immediately. He couldn't smell anything but I knew I smelled smoke. The smoke detector wasn't blaring, but we checked anyway.
We ran upstairs, there was nothing up the first set of 8 steps, but when we made it to the landing and turned to go up the last 3 steps, we could see smoke beginning
to billow out of my son's bedroom door!
My son, I love him, but he uses the floor as a laundry hamper. I could hardly push his door open to get through. The room was completely filled with acrid smoke. We finally pushed our way through the door expecting to see his room on fire. It wasn't, however, smoke was billowing from something beside his bed. My husband, grabbed his matress and hauled it off the frame, and when he did, it caught my leg and I lost my footing. There were clothes on the floor, books, and other things strewn around, so I couldn't get myself balanced. I could hardly speak, the smoke was burning my throat, and my eyes. I heard him say "Open the window, quick!" I still was having a hard time finding a level place to stand. I lunged toward the window, and pulled the curtains over and opened the window. The screen was in the way and I couldn't get it out, so I just pushed on it, tearing it wide open. In my husbands hand was what looked like a crumpled up blanket, smoldering like crazy, with orange embers glowing all through it. I got out of his way, but fell down again with all of the stuff on the floor. My husband, managed to throw the smoking blanket out of the window, down to the ground. Whew!
The blanket landed directly on top of our gas meter! The junction where gas actually is pumped into our house. My husband gasped! " Oh no, not the gas meter!" It fell off right away, onto the driveway directly under my husbands old pick up truck. Another gasp! "Oh no, my truck has a gas leak! The whole neighbourhood will go up!"
I was struggling to get up, and get out into the hall to breathe some fresh air! My husband thought I was overcome with smoke, and I heard him say "Oh great, I have a hernia and I have to haul your fat ass, and mine out of this mess, run downstairs, and pick up a blanket that is probably on fire by now?"
I started to laugh. Why, I'm not sure. Probably because it was such a high stress situation, and the house wasn't on fire! Sounded rational to me! I told my husband to go, I was fine. Down he ran, delicately I might add, which made me laugh even more. I crawled my way out into the hall and managed to get downstairs. He never lost his balance once, I couldn't stay on my feet! I ran outside to see my husband throw the smoking blanket into a large plastic tub. He instructed me to turn the hose on and immerse it in water. I did. I was amazed to still see it smoking! There was literally smoke on the water! I thought that was just a song!
My husband, looking relieved,
aked me " Nothing else was burning, right?" " Uuhhh....else?" I questioned him back. Back up we ran, by now, the room was beginning to clear. We checked everything out thoroughly, my son really needs to clean his room! There was nothing else, although the wall beside his bed had a 4 inch scorched spot on it, and a lamp with the top all black, with the bottom of a melted light bulb still attached. My son, must have turned the light on, to get dressed, probably looking for his clean clothes in the mess, moved the blanket, and it landed on the light. Because it was dark, he must have assumed the light was turned off. That blanket, smoldered there for 2 hours before I smelled it. I unplugged it from the wall and proceeded to open all of the windows.
A few minutes later, my husband and I reconvened out in the backyard. I pulled the burned blanket apart and examined it. Inside, was the rest of the light bulb, a melted mass, stuck to the blanket.
That is when reality caught up with me. It was so close to catching on fire, another 30 seconds and it would have. The burnt embers were floating on top of the water now.
My husband and I sat down, both of us shaking, throats sore from breathing in all of that smoke and thankful to God for being alive. It could have been much worse.
I looked at my shaken husband and I began to laugh, he looked at me and he laughed too. He said "Don't be dragging me into your drama's and freak shows anymore! I don't like it!" Laughing, I told him "Too late!" I was so thankful he was here with me for this bout of crazy! I would have been still struggling to get up!
Yes, our life is a lot like skating on thin ice, without the benefits of skates. We are never sure if we will fall through, fall on our face, or perform a perfect triple axle. It's always interesting.
Like Forrest Gump said, "Life is a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get." Oh how true, how true.
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