Yesterday morning was normal enough. I got up, took a shower and Roxie and I ran off to the beauty supply store to pick something up before Doug had to go to work. (One tag-a-long is much easier than four.) While I was there, Doug called me and said that the carbon monoxide detector had gone off and not to be surprised and worried if there was a fire truck in front of our house when I got home. That was probably a smart call.
Apparently, Doug had gotten in the shower and the alarm went off. He asked the kids if there was smoke anywhere (he thought it was the smoke detecter.) They said no, so he had to get out of the shower to investigate. It was the carbon monoxide detector. He checked to see if it was just telling us to replace the batteries and when he realized that it was not, he told the kids to get out of the house. At some point, he got dressed. I don't know when, but I don't want you to worry your pretty little heads about him being naked in the front yard. I digress. Anyway, he called the fire department and they sent some firefighters over to check and sure enough, there was carbon monoxide in our house. You might think the kids would be worried or afraid. Yes, they were terrified.
What? They don't look it? Hmm... Maybe it had something to do with being allowed to use a real fire truck as their personal jungle gym. Oh, and an ambulance came, too, but we were healthy as horses, so they left.
(Doug started feeling sick later and had to go to the ER, but is feeling fine now.)
The fire department called the gas company and they sent someone over with more sensitive equipment to find the source. It turns out it was the water heater. Apparently the carbon monoxide had just been building up in the basement. The gas company man said that we had been lucky. If things hadn't happened the way they had, the levels were high enough in the water heater that we could have gone to sleep and never woken up. We know that we were watched over and blessed and we are so grateful.
