Fire!

Of the 3,000 blog topics that are swirling around in my brain...I will select: Fire.

Specifically, toaster oven fires, of which I now have direct experience. Friday I had a school Read-A-Thon meeting scheduled at my house right after the kids left for school. For breakfast, I popped some Trader Joe's mini morning buns into the toaster oven and went to get dressed while they baked and the kids got ready. Less than 10 minutes later (the buns were scheduled for a 15-20 minute snooze in the toaster oven), smoke was pouring out and flames leaping up inside as the black plastic tray designed to go into the oven melted to pieces. Then those pieces flew all over the kitchen, settling everywhere.

The funny thing was (the only funny thing) the theme of this year's Read-A-Thon is "Fire Up With Reading." I really didn't mean to take it so literally.

The best part: some really nice firefighters came by a little later to make sure the kitchen wasn't toxic. By then, three other women were here for our meeting. I wondered later if the firemen thought I had called all my friends from the neighborhood for their visit.

The worst part: the fire made a big mess, but did not ruin our kitchen cabinets which need replacing anyway.

The really best part: no one was injured and our house didn't burn down.

The disturbing part: smoke alarms didn't go off and my 7-year old was so intent on studying the boxes of cereal in the cabinet across the room that he never noticed the smoke and flames.

The second best part: a professional cleaning crew has been cleaning up the last 3 days.

The second worst part: it comes out of our insurance deductible.

It's a little scary to think about. Fire, I mean. How fast things can happen and go wrong. I always think of it as such an unlikely thing, but it turns out it isn't.