It was midnight, 8.5 hours ago. Youngest brother and Mom were sleeping. 19 year old brother was watching a movie, I'm on the shitter (figures). I hear my brother yell "WTF" and some asshole with shoes running heavy and fast on the hardwood! I don't see anything because I'm in the bathroom literally wiping my ass. My instinct told me that some poor soul had the misfortune of breaking in my home. I'm 6'0" 200lb and my brother is about 6'2" 210lb. I've never been in a fight alongside my brother, not since we were kids. I've been in scuffles against him. He's not much of a fighter, but he's freekishly strong. He can pick me up and throw me accross a room. He doesn't even work out, I don't know where he gets it. I don't have the torque he has but I'm much faster and I believe I can take more punishment. In any case the prospect of being in a real fight alongside my brother as adults was exciting even if I was stressed (understated) about mom and youngest brother being vulnerable. All I could think was that as long as we use our bare hands they can't pin this as excessive force.
This excitement was short lived because when i rushed out the bathroom I didn't find any intruder, there was none. It was my brother running around in his shoes. He was spooked. You ever see someone that was spooked? Spooked is like the climax of panic and shock. It happens just before you're able to function more normally. It didn't seem like he knew what to do with himself at that exact moment.
Just as I ask him "wtf is going on" he cuts me off and exclaims there's a fire! Like a twit I look left a right for the fire. And before I can form a new question, he demanded that I look out mom's bedroom window. I ran in her room where she was still asleep and sure enough a house accross our modestly sized backyard was engulfed in flames. It is -25C (-13F) outside and I could feel the heat of the fire even with the window closed. The fire was so bright that it light up the room. The house was maybe ten meters away. I say a house but it was actually a small apartment complex, divided in four.
It's amazing how fast fight turned to flight. The thoughts were whizzing by. I told my brother to wake up the neighbor (semi detached), shes like 80 and was alone last night. Meanwhile I woke up the rest of my family. Looking at the burning mass of hell, I figured a 50/50 chance the fire would spread to our house. Above both our homes are two very large trees that bridge our homes. All that had to happen was a change in wind and pfff.
I ran in my room to get dressed. And this is where we have a discussion. I was in a rare position. My house wasn't on fire yet. So I had a headstart by at least a few minutes. It was still required that we leave very soon but I had maybe a minute to grab a few prized possesions. I know it sounds stupid, who cares about your junk when you're life is in danger. Well believe me if our house was on fire there are only three things I would try to grab. Family , clothes (only enough to wear) and wallet. That's the exact order I chased these things. Once I woke up mom and my brother I went to get dressed and found my wallet. I was left with what I figured a minute to grab some shit I value.
You want to know what I grabbed in this time. I shit you not. I looked around. You know what, I don't have many things that aren't replaceable. It would suck to lose my DVDs and HDD, any kind of data is always a bitch to replace. The worst thing to lose is all my paper work. You know those thin sheets of tree that rule our lives. Receipts, degrees..., birth certificate, death certificates of relatives, tax paperwork, pictures, work... It's a good idea to keep all of that shit in one suitcase. That way if the shit hits the fan you can just pick it up and go, save yourself a lot of headache if you lose it. Another smart idea is to back up all your data in an external drive, including movies. This is a good idea regardless of a fire. Anyways the only thing I brought besides my clothes and wallet is "The Hitchiker's Guide to The Galaxy" trilogy in five parts. A fucking book, that's it. But in my defense at this point the fire department was here and I had a more optimistic expectation of the fire being tamed before it shits on my home. I did figure I might have to sleep at Grandma's, so a good book is good. In the end we were able to go back in after the first hour.
Fortunately, lady luck was threw us a bone and the wind kept the flames away from our home for the three hours it took to put out the fire. We don't even have any smoke damage. The cold and wind saved our asses. If this was July, I'd be sleeping on Grandma's sofa instead of in my room typing on my sexy G15.
But it goes to show how unprepared I was. I handled myself fine but if the house burned down I would have lost all my paper work and digital data and I even forgot to grab my weed. Weed is cheap but if I lost my home I would want to roll up a J as soon as I get my ass out.
Anyways, what would you grab if you had 1 minute to get out? Assuming you're already dressed.
<message edited by Agent Ghost on Jan 11, 2009 13:28>