Last night The Island Girl
came home from school to spend the weekend. The Oldest Island Boy is
staying in Gulf Breeze during the week to work and he came home for
the weekend too so we decided to make a spaghetti feast to celebrate
all of our birdies being in the nest.
The Island King was
cooking and the Island Girl and I were sitting at the bar watching
him. He put some garlic bread in the oven, turned on the broiler and
turned back to talk to us.
Less than a minute later
something in the oven started sparking. The Island Girl and I both
yelled and as the Island King turned around sparks started flying and
the burner split. The sparks kept flying and now we have a fire red
burner acting like a welding rod.
He turned the oven off and
even though we're yelling at him to get the breaker, he runs into the
garage to and returns with a 2x4.
My house is absolute chaos
at this point. The dog is barking, me and the kids are yelling and
he's banging on this burner with the 2x4 like he can beat the fire
out.
Now, I have to tell you
that my husband was an actual – went to school and worked in Miami
– firefighter.
“Was” meaning back in
1980 something.
He's yelling that he knows
what to do because he's been trained in this but really, you can't
blame me for doubting him because I doubt that that at any point in
his training was he told to grab a 2x4 and beat a fire out.
And, still, no one has
turned the breaker off.
The 2x4 wasn't working so
the man actually grabbed a cup of water and was going to throw it on
the welding hot burner.
The Island Girl and I went
nuts. “Don't throw water on an electrical fire”!
He's yelling that the oven
is off and the burner is now an arc welder and that the fire isn't
electrical.
Right about then the
Island Girl and the Youngest Island Boy started yelling “get the
fire extinguisher!” and the Oldest Island Boy says “he's insane –
I'm going to turn the breaker off”
The Island King says no
that we don't know which breaker and will have to through them all
which means we'll be in the dark.
The Island Girl points out
that he'll be able to see the fire in the dark and that she has a
flashlight.
He's getting frustrated,
more at us than at the actual welding rod thing going on in our oven,
so as the Oldest and I are getting ready to throw the switch and kill
everything in the house he grabs the fire extinguisher and hits the
burner with it.
We went back in the
kitchen as he opened the oven door and it was still burning so he hit
it again with the fire extinguisher and slammed the door.
Which actually put the
thing out.
Now, he will tell you that
it burned itself out at the exact moment that he hit it with the fire
extinguisher, which, in his mind, is why he had to do it twice, but
the Island Girl swears that he just barely hit it the first time and
that when he really hit it the second time – it went out.
I suppose that it could be
pure coincidence, after all there are three astrological events
happening tonight, but to be honest, I think the fire extinguisher
did it.
So the oven fire/arcing
welding rod is out but now my oven has been beat with a 2x4 and
sprayed with a fire extinguisher.
What a mess those things
make! Luckily most of it was contained to the kitchen but there is a
thin layer of dust covering everything in the living room and the
dining room.
Which does not surprise me
considering I spent all day today dusting and mopping and cleaning.
Not surprisingly, the
Island King has a completely different take on the situation but I
guess we all see things differently in a crisis.
I do agree calm is
something we should work on as a family – and maybe a lot of little
common sense. The Oldest could teach the class because he assessed
the situation and then decided to turn the breaker off.