Eerie night

Last night was very eerie.

After all the smoke had settled, and the fire trucks gone, people were driving by all night long.

I live in a bit of a "rough" neighborhood and there are always voices and people out during the night. Normally it doesn't bother me and actually find it some what comforting because I'm so far away from any notiable city. (Sure I'm only 15 minutes from Hartford, but it's a ghost town after 5-6pm)

Last night, just after dark, I went to my back porch and sat. It was odd to not hear ANYTHING. No voices of people walking around, nothing.

It also seemed really really odd to not see the fire fighters out there battling. Even though the whole thing was surreal, it almost seemed normal. The other thing I found odd, while watching my videos, not one single person was crying, screaming or panicing. I wonder if it was because we all knew the houses were empty. Or we all kind of expected those houses to go up? But not one person yelling.

I finally went to bed at 10 ish. Before I fell asleep, I made sure to tell Joey Sky how proud of him I was that he didn't panic or anything. He did an amazing job getting out and leaving.

I woke up at 3 this afternoon. To be honest, I could have slept the whole night.

When I got up, I told Joey Sky we were heading to the store to get fire extinguishers. They were always on my list to go and get, but I just kept putting it off.

I bought 6 of them. Three medium ones and 3 large ones. I bought one for each apartment, one for each hall and one for the basement. I also noticed refective tape there and bought some for the stairs. It's not only for us to get out, but in case of a fire, for the fire department to use as well. I had a firefighter come and ask to use my bathroom and she made a comment that my stairwell was dark.

We're still getting cars up and down the street and I can still smell the smoke when I'm outside.

Normally I'm not a cuddler, but last night I really wished I had a person to hold me for the night and tell me it was going to be ok. Today, I keep going through the escape route in my mind and wonder if there was anything I could have done better.

It never dawned on me to grab anything other than my keys and the children in my house. I grabbed my keys because I locked my doors. I don't know why. While thinking about it today, just because we were out and safe doesn't mean that no one would break in. Some people prey on others misfortune. I think I grabbed my keys because that way I could have used my car to get out.

I left my wallet and everything else behind. I didn't even grab a jacket. The only reason I had my camera was because it was right next to my keys. I know, being in insurance, having pictures of a loss is helpful in investigations. I also thought it would make some really cool pictures.

I had a few people look at the images and tell me I should have gone into journalism/ photo journalism. I would love to, if I only knew how.

Anyway, just an update to let you know we are still ok. Still a bit shaken, but nothing major.

Thanks for the calls and texts. I'm still unwinding so not taking many calls today.

-Metal