And now, for your reading pleasure....

This little story comes from when I was a freshman in high school and my sister was a senior. Or something like that. It was summer. It was hot. The parents were on a week long camping trip to who knows where with a bunch of their friends. Of course, mom is the worry wort in our family so she had to call - OFTEN. LOL...

Ok, now let's back track just a bit for some background info. My sister was dating this guy, Troy. (Editor's note: I will not be changing the name of the innocent to protect him, he's an idiot). Anyhoo, during the summer he had gotten himself a job with the Forest Service fighting fires. So he's been out all summer off and on doing this. Now it's August. Two sisters have the house to themselves for a week. We decide to have a bbq. So over comes Troy and my boyfriend, Jim. We set up our teeny tiny bbq on the deck - you know that old kind - 3 legs, not very tall, have to prop it up on something taller so we can flip the burgers without squatting down. We get it all set up, coals are stacked, matches are there....can't find the lighter fluid. So, let's use the next best thing - gasoline!!! Dad always kept a small gallon container of it in the garage for the lawn mower, etc. Troy douses the coals and we toss in the match. It started out real nice...but we all know how long coals take before turning that ash white color and hot enough to cook on.....After a while, Troy decides it's taking too long. The flame is gone now (well duh! doesn't mean it's not cooking the coals!), so he decides to throw more gasoline on it! (Editor's note: did I mention he was an idiot?)

WOW! I've never seen fire spread like that! LOL...we had the bbq set up in the corner of the deck by the stairs that went down to the yard. It immediately caught the corner on fire and the stairs. Singed dumb dumbs eyebrows. Now get this - Mr. Firefighter FREAKS OUT!!! I ran downstairs and out the sliding door under the deck (this door was locked and I forgot to unlock it, so as I yanked it open, I did a great job of yanking the metal frame out of the cement!). I had to push it closed, unlock and then ran out under the deck and up the back side of the house to turn on the water hose under my parents bedroom window near the deck stairs. Troy had ran out the front door and around the front of the house turning on the hose under the front room overhang. That hose was actually too short to reach the stairs. Marcie (sister) and Jim were up on the deck carrying water back and forth from the kitchen trying to douse the up top flames. Troy came running around to where I was screaming at me "turn on the water!" and he grabbed the hose from me. The water was on full force, only it was still making it's way thru the hot hose. He ran over to the faucet and started turning it off.

Jan: "It's on!! Give it time to go thru the hose!"

He runs back over to the deck and is shaking the hose with no water.
"Turn the water on!" (Editor's note: Dipshit!)

I run back over and turn the water on AGAIN.

So the fire is out. The deck is pretty much blackened. The only thing left burning is what's left of my dad's gasoline jug on the cement pad at the bottom of the stairs. Troy says we just have to let it burn itself out. That throwing water on it won't help but make it spread again. He's standing by it, watching it. Jim and I are at the top of the stairs watching him. Here comes Marcie with one last large bowl of water..... :-) She stands at the top of the stairs and tosses it, just as Troy yells NO!!!! She almost caught him on fire! LOL...but he jumped back in time.

Phone rings....mom!!! :-)

Marcie answers: "let me talk to dad" (our dad worked as a Soil Scientist for the Forest Service and fought fires when he was first in).

"Why? what did you guys do?"

"Nothing. I just want to talk to dad."

Dad gets on, Marcie tells him what happened. He's calm (as always), tells us to call his friend, a fire chief that lives near us, to come over and make sure it is all out. Mom freaks. LOL...the guy comes over, everything is cool.

Troy spends the rest of his summer sanding, replacing and refinishing the deck.

We found out later from him, that he only was ever allowed to fight like 1 or 2 fires when he was out working. He was so clumsy, scatterbrained, etc, that they made him the cook instead. LOLOL...

Tuesday Tally:
Another 100% day on NS plan food and water! Still no exercise, but I am working on that. I'm just glad I can keep junk food out of my mouth at this point. Baby steps....