First off, let me explain my absence. We had a bit of a heat problem in my office/basement, and with the arthritis I can’t really type a lot in a room with no heat. So I’ve been taking time away from the blog. I can’t tell you how I’ve missed it. I have at least three random thoughts a day that I wish I could write out of my system. There are pieces of paper (now in the trash) with paragraphs here and there. I swear if I don’t write I get this constipated feeling in my soul. It’s hard to explain–which may prove that I’m a crappy writer. But we’ll go with “constipated soul” and leave it at that.
Anyway, the “I’m a Jerk” thing….
So there is smoke pouring out of my neighbours’ house. Lots of it. I can’t walk over and check because I’m in the middle of a bad flare. So I call 911. Turns out it was nothing. They have a new fireplace in their bonus room–one that vents to the outside through the wall. Well, to me it just looked like smoke pouring out of their wall in the room where I know they have a Christmas tree.
I’m an idiot for wasting the fire department’s time.
I don’t think calling to report smoke pouring out from your neighbor’s home makes you an idiot or a jerk. I think it was a pretty reasonable thing to do.
Yah, me too.
I have never heard of a fireplace venting through a wall. I would have done the same thing.
Yes, I think calling the fire department was kind and considerate.
That’s certainly a legitimate “err on the side of caution” situation, if ever there was one.
Waiting to see towering flames would have cost valuable time if it had turned out to be an actual house fire.
You are not a jerk and shouldn’t be embarrassed.
You are a good neighbor.
yeah, what everybody else said already.
I agree. Nothing to say. Everyone else pretty much has it covered. If I were your neighbor, I’d be bringing you a big plate of Christmas cookies with a note that says, “Thank you! I appreciate your concern.” I’d also be taking an even bigger plate of cookies to the Fire Station with a note that said, “I regret the inconvenience that I caused.”
[…] May 7, 2009 by Katherine Coble On the days when I’m out of commission I spend a lot of time on the couch in my bonus room, or on the couch in my living room. Those, coincidentally, are the only two rooms in the house that have a window to the street. I try not to be Gladys Kravitz, and most of the time I’m so engrossed in a book or whacked out on meds that I don’t notice anything at all. Especially after last winter when I wasted tons of taxpayer money and embarrassed myself. […]