I responded with our address.....
A couple hours earlier, we were finishing supper, VERY late. I headed back to my room to be sure I had my water cup from the night before to load into the dishwasher. It smelled, no STUNK of a sweet smoky smell.... almost like a black and mild, but not so strong. I searched all over. The children are pretty good about staying out of my room and I had paid close attention to their pre-supper play time. Checked the bathroom and the closet.... nothing. Man, it smelled so strong. Smelled the main bathroom and it was fine. Poked my head into the school room, it, too smelled normal. Opened Malkiah's door: yuck! Sweet smokey smell in there as well. Checked the rest of the house and realized it was only in those two rooms. I took a look at the smoke detectors, all had the green light on. I tried to ignore it.
I finished dishes, got Alohi to bed, all while continuing to check those rooms. I headed outside, hoping to smell one of my neighbors having a late-evening cigar outside (it was a VERY nice night to sit out). Nothing!
I text my girlfriend, Mary Jo. Mary Jo is awesome, and so is her husband. He's a fireman and I knew he'd have a word of advice.
"I'm losing my mind. My room and Ki's room smell like fire, but no smoke. I want to call the fire dept. but I don't want to waste their time".
"Oh my! Call them tell them it could be electrical."
Mary Jo never uses exclamation points. I stared at it on my phone's screen. Then responded.
"I don't want to look paranoid and ridiculous if it's nothing. I only smell it in those 2 rooms."
After a conversation back and forth about windows being open or not, she convinced me to call so they could check electrical outlets and be sure I didn't have one going bad.
"Do you want us to come over?"
"I'll call in a sec... painting calamine on the kids. If you want. I'm a bit freaked. Wish Matthew were here."
"Ok. We will be on the way."
"I can't find a non-emergency number"
Havelock, 911, Where is your emergency?
I told her my address, and made it clear there was no fire or smoke that I could see. She gave me the impression it would be a bit, but to call if I see smoke and they'll send them over quicker.
Ani was scared and Ki was excited. Just a couple minutes later, SIRENS, LOTS OF SIRENS! We opened the front door and saw lights bouncing off the houses in the neighborhood. Oh goodness. Here we go!
A fireman showed up in an suv type vehicle first. He came right in and couldn't smell what I was talking about.... geesh. I could smell it. We both stood there and I said "I know I'm not crazy because I only smell it in these two rooms, so it's not like a scent stuck in my nose. You know?"
"I believe you. I have a bad sense of smell."
Then we heard Ki's enthusiasm "BIG TRUCK"!
It actually looked quite pretty with all those lights out in the dark. Two firemen approached in FULL gear and holding an axe and some other type of tool that freaked me out. They checked the whole house with something to be sure the outlets were ok. Mary Jo and Eugene showed up. They are what I call "natives" here. They grew up here, and not because of the Marine Corps. Native friends are golden when you move around. They know the area better than any family stationed there. Military wives, you KNOW what I'm talking about. Of course, Mary Jo and Eugene know a fireman from this station. He wasn't working, though. It was his day off.
Alohi slept through the entire ordeal, even when they went up into her room to check the outlets. And just before they left, Ani and Ki got to go check out the firetruck. There was a female out there and Anika has now decided she wants to stay a girl and be a "firelady". She cracks me up!
It took a while to wind the kids down last night, but the scent left and did not return. I was up past midnight, again! It's 10:30 and the kids are still in their pj's on this rainy day.
RAINY DAY! YES! I've been looking forward to this. I'll be scrubbing the fridge, pushing laundry, and cleaning all those little crevices that get ignored during daily cleaning and Friday chores.
Ewwwww, I think I just decided that the word "crevice" is gross!
2 comments:
so what was the smell?????
They don't know. All they could think is that perhaps someone had been out having a cigar, the scent came into the home where it lingered, and when I went outside to check, they had already finished. Craziest thing.... my bedroom smells like coffee today..... I mean, it smells like you just walked into Starbuck's. I have the windows open in there, and I can still smell it. It smelled like that before I opened the windows. Craziness! Can't wait til I'm not preggo and my nose doesn't work so well!
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