Why?

Ok, this is not by far the worst thing that could happen to us, but it's just frustrating... even to me, who's usually intrigued by weird weather...

Today, I arrived at home a little after 2pm and began making lunch before JP got home from work (the big meal of the day is between 2 and 4pm here). I dropped some crumbs onto the gas stove top and immediately smelled burning, thinking it was my crumbs. I went to open the window, and a huge blast of smoke came in from outside! It wasn't my crumbs burning... I saw the girls from across the parking area covering their mouths and running back into their home, and I yelled out to them to find out what was burning. It was the vacant lot behind our neighborhood that is just a bunch of really dry grass, probably caught on fire by the lack of any real rain and the heavy winds that even knocked the top of our roof-top water tank (no longer in use) off the roof last night. Black pieces of burnt twigs and grass fell out of the sky. I grabbed a kitchen towel to cover my mouth and nose, and ran outside to see it for myself. There was a lady with a garden hose wetting down her home (she lives closest to the field), I gave her my towel and headed back inside. I ran upstairs and actually started packing some valuables - photos, money, important paperwork, laptop, JP's Bible, his new tennisshoes... into a couple backpacks to take with me in case the fire came any closer... I remember having thought several times in years past what I would grab if I had to evacuate my house fast, and today I actually packed those things...

Thankfully, the fire department came and put out the flames, but as of about 6pm there was still fire burning under the burnt grass in the field, and lots of smoke coming out. Unfortunately, weather-stripping windows and doors isn't terribly necesary here, so the smoke filled our house, which is completely concrete (no one has fire alarms in the house here). So we left in the evening because we were starting to feel sick because of the smoke. It's 10pm, I'm tired, and I'm at a coffee shop with JP and our computers, and we have NO desire to go back home. I'm not sure it's healthy to sleep with all the smoke, and if we open the windows even MORE smoke will come in because it's really smokey still... We're going back to the house to see if the smoke might have cleared out a bit, and if not, well, we'll probably call some friends to see if we can spend the night...

This makes me VERY grateful that I haven't ever lived through a true natual disaster with really bad effects... My husband and I, and our neighbors, are all alive and well. We may have a housefull of smokey clothes, and I lost my kitchen towel to the neighbor lady, but all in all we fared EXTREMELY well. And for that I'm thankful. That and the fact that we have friends with extra beds that could house us tonight... God is good for protecting us!