Osler's Razor

Yesterday, Tyd provided an update on her exploding house, but it was buried in the comments section before IPLawGuy's excellent reflection on the Virginia Tech shootings, so I have reprinted it below, slightly abridged (and put in bold the part where she asks about lawyers):

Ok we are alive and well and living at the Residence Inn. We will soon be in a rented house, probably for a year because they say the house is a total loss, and it has to be torn down and totally rebuilt. We are all fine and everyone has been giving us all kinds of things, as we lost a LOT of stuff, including but the cars they look okay but the headlights and the engines like MELTED. We are waiting to hear how they will handle the cars. Most people say they will not be driveable. This is a loooooonnnnnggg story but the deal is this.

We were home, and Spencer was out front smoking and playing with blasting caps with his little friend Donut. Bill and I were both upstairs and working on our computers at different ends of the house. The Canby Telephone company had been on our street digging all week putting in giant orange tubes in the ground.

All of a sudden we start smelling a gas odor in the house. Bill said its really strong but it was not so strong on my side of the house. SO he goes out and tells the Canby Telephone guys that we smells gas. This is what they say:

"Well that is because we were digging right in front of your house and we hit the gas line. We have called people and its gonna stink for a while but it should be okay If the smell bothers you, go back in your house and close all of the windows."

Then about 7 min after this BANG BANG BANG BANG on the front door.. It is a guy from NW Natural. GET OUT NOW NOW NOW

so I get my purse and I cannot find my cell phone. then I decide to leave it. then I am looking all over for the dog's leash. The guy is yelling at us I am telling I have to find the dogs leash he is like NO NOW GET OUT NOW!!!!!

SO then the fire trucks show up... I am thinking well its CANBY what ever happens in CANBY???? they have nothing else to do this is like their big excitement. so they tell us we are gonna go in the house and open all of your windows. Well, we had not CLOSED them really but we just did not really open any.

So four firemen go in.. I am bored and annoyed and I wish we could at least get in the car or something. They are in there like five minutes and then BOOOM. The garage door BLOWS across the street. A HUGE fireball comes out of the garage, and goes in in the air and turns to black smoke. then crash crach OF WINDOWS i SEE ALL THIS THE WINDOW JUST flies OUT OF THE LIVINGROOM... glass everywhere... its the loudest noise It was like baghdad I swear.

Turns out there is STILL gas allll surrounding our house. In fact it had come up thru all of our pipes and in the TOILETS that morning that is how much gas there was in the house. the neighbor next door as a pond/fountain and as of today it is STILL testing at 40% gas concentration. We found out that of the four firemen in the house, ONE got burns but he is home already. The other three had minor injuries and were treated and released.

Watching your house blow up is harder than it seems. Especially knowing what we had just completed. We finally got to go inside the other day and they say it is a total loss that we will have to rebuild. So far our insurance co is helping us greatly but I worry about the dent in Bill's buisiness. They found guitar parts on the neighbors roof, in peoples yards and allll the way down the street. His machines are all gone and stuff too. His upstairs shop collapsed onto his downstairs shop.

Every day we go to the house and go inside and try to find stuff. we lost a LOT but of course the countertops survived.... but they cannot pull them off. SO looks like pretty much we are getting a A NEW house. And this time, I am getting HABIB for ALLLL of it. Plus, we are going to build that closet with the grow lights that Spencer has been pestering us about.

In the mean time we are kind of nomads. Everyone is saying get a lawyer...I am not sure what to do THey all say it was Canby Telephone's fault... we could get a lawyer but I mean for what? Bills Business? I mean it totally is going to interrupt how we can make a living for maybe years to come. I just don't know how we would I mean what are they supposed to do about this?

We are at the Residence Inn for like a week with our rented Chrysler Pacifica whale of a station wagon. They are moving us to a house someplace near Canby, or maybe to Charbonneau which is near Spencer's preschool. I guess it will have furniture. Then we will get them to build a new house I guess. or something.

ALl I know is this community has been fantastic they have dropped off toys, diapers, kids clothing.. tons of things. AND all of the neighbors are like storing our stuff for us and things like this. Spencer lost a lot of his toys and stuff, and Donut had all of his ammo and gas cans in there.

Tonight we curled up in our bed and I read him some books and it was just like normal The dog is at the neighbor's until tomorrow we are even bringing his Fire Engine bed tomorrow so he will feel more at home.

There is a song by Billy Joel a total sap but its called "You're My Home." Its like that is how I feel. Wherever Bill and Spencer are I am home as long as we are together. They both still drive me up the wall, but its good to be home, even at the Residence Inn.

So I feel lucky. I do not know HOW Bill is going to get the business back going, or what the future holds, but for now I feel very lucky.

[Ed. note: I added the part about Spencer playing with blasting caps and smoking. He actually was at preschool. I also added the part about the closet with the grow lights, and any comments relating to Spencer's friend Donut.]