counting my blessings.....

ok, so i arrived home just in back of the fire marshall.....who lives right around the corner....and just after my middle child got the dog out of the smoke filled house.....and long before the ladder truck arrived.......i had stopped at the kroger to buy the ingredients for quiche.....and was not the first home.....stephan had been the first on the scene....and had heard the smoke alarms before he ever opened the door....and he tried to use his cell to call 9-11...but we do not have cell service unless we are on the road, or at the dock...not actually in our house......and so he crawled into the smoke-filled house to get the kitchen phone...and the old dog......and he walked with the portable around the side, and saw orange flames.....so when he called 9-11 they must have thought the place was going to blow with some sort of chemicals...anyway........at one point, stephan and i and the fire marshall/neigher named bud were standing on the porch....and we all went back in, along with my mom's crazy dog......and i took the dog's water pan off the porch and threw it on the fire....the fire that was consuming my bathroom.....my jacuzzi tub bathroom.....my tribute to french culture bathroom.....my wintering the plants over bathroom.......omg.....it took 3 tubs of water, in addition to bud throwing water from the sink.....and of course....it appears that it is basically my fault.....a candle i used 2 days ago had smouldered.......and now the fiberglass bathtub is unusable....the window above it is shattered....the plant stand is toast.......as are most of my plants......bath supplies.....and the basket that held them......and the window sill........i do not know if my treasured poster from lyon or my print of french coffee cups are ok.......the floor may be toast...it is vintage cedar put in by my husband's late grandfather...the guy who built this place years ago........and so the fire truck came....the firemen in their getups.....the whole nine-yards.......and i called my spouse in shock...and he closed the store and came home too.....and so here we are...with a bathroom in shambles...but lucky to be alive....and to have so little harm done compared to what could have happened.......of all the days when i really could use a beer and a bath.....