Oh, what a day: the appendix

When I crawled into bed the night of the adventure filled day (see previous posts 1 and 2), I had to pray that the Lord would pretty please let me sleep through the whole night. I was exhausted. I'm surprised that I didn't have any nightmares of raccoons eating my face.

When I walked into the office the next morning all I could think is

Surely we won't have another day like yesterday. It's just not possible.

It was quiet in the office for about, oh, 45 minutes. Then 2 of The Guys came in, in discussion about something that seemed important.

What? What is it?!

Um, we think the tree next to the "house" is on fire still.

Yeah (laugh), right. It's been raining all night. Ice and everything. There's no way.

I saw red and small flames and smoke. I think we need to call 911.

And so he did. While on the phone, I and one of the other Guys decided to go and check it out. By this time, we didn't doubt that the crazed and unusual seem to follow us like fleas on dogs. So we bundled up, grabbed an umbrella and walked down the long driveway to the ruins of the once beautiful house. Sitting beside the house (or where it used to be) is a LARGE dead tree that has an old eagles nest in it's barren branches.

As we passed the end of our gate and headed to the other one belonging to the burnt house, we see a truck pull up and an older couple roll down their windows and say hello. They ask about the house. The live in the community next to ours. It seems that the fire engines went to their beach to get water. The tide was so low that night that they couldn't get to the water from our beaches. And we have no fire hydrants anywhere around our neighborhood. The couple was very nice and turned around and left (by this time, our street had become a parade of curious neighbors).

Before we entered the gate, we noticed a random car sitting in the next neighbor's driveway. The driver was just standing near his car walking back and forth every couple of minutes. Clearly he was waiting for someone. But The Guy I was with quickly identified him as "that creepy lying stalker guy" that had driven on our property the day before claiming to be an insurance agent. Hmmmm.

We opened the gate and walked down the burnt house's driveway. About half way in we began to see the tree WAS on fire still. It was BRIGHT red and glowing. Small puffs of smoke came out of the top of one of the branches. How in the world was this possible?!!


It's like Mt. Doom or Silent Hill (never watch this. Too creepy. stupid brother made me.) or that town in PA that is eternally burning from underneath. OK, maybe not that extreme, but pretty close.

As we were standing there watching it burn, we heard fire sirens.
Again.
They were back.
Again.

We opened the gate up to let the truck in. We explained the situation (by now all 4 of us who were at camp was all crowded around watching everything) of the burning tree. The firefighters were very nice and went to survey the situation. The decided that dumping 400 gallons of water on the tree was the best solution. Who were we to argue?

So we stood and watched the firemen do their thing. By now, it was FREEZING, damp and just nasty outside. I couldn't feel my hands or legs anymore. As the firemen finished, of the The Guys, went up noticed that "creepy stalker guy" had decided to walk up the road and knock on the doors of 2 of camp's townhouses.

Yeah, that's not gonna bode well for you mister.

The Guy took off after him and finally caught him in his bluff. He called out, and I quote, "hey, creepy stalker guy, you aren't really their insurance agent are you?" This guy, of course, back peddled and try to pull out some random story about being a public insurance agent.

Um, yeah. Totally creepy. I will be locking my doors more often now.

The fire department finished up and pulled out of the driveway just as bona fide insurance agent, in a company car pulled in. Creepy stalker guy seemed to think that this was a good time for him to head out.

As the engine was pulling out after it had turned around in our big parking lot, one of The Guys decided that he wanted to ask the fire men to turn on the siren by doing the old fashioned truckers sign. You know, the one that you pull your fist down out of the sky. The one you used to do when you were on the school bus in middle school. Yeah, that's what he did.

The firemen thought it was funny and happily obliged. Off they went.

We went back to the office and thankfully the rest of the day was uneventful. And that stupid raccoon never showed his face.....

Until today, again. Oh, yes, he's back.....