So Where Was Timber?

Spring arrived ... and with it, heavy flooding in the area, including my basement. There was a huge mess, but the upside is we got rid of a lot of unknown stuff that had been in unmarked cardboard boxes for untold years. Got The Farm Chores For Spring pretty well caught up, took a few days off, boarded The Puppies (except Sam and Pebbles, who came with us) with freinds, arranged care for The Ponies and Other Critters, and went Totally-Out-Of-Touch Camping ... didn't even bring a cell phone. Got home to discover an electrical fault (flooding-related, probably) in the garage had started a fire which smoldered unnoticed for a while, then reached the area where flammables like gasoline, oil, and propane were stored. The natural progression of events from that point brought the fire to the attention of just about the entire Township (kinda sorry I missed that; I understand it was quite spectacular ... Oh, Well). The Volunteer Fire Department was unable to save the garage, but did manage to contain and confine fire damage affecting the house to pretty much just the corner closest to the garage. That corner included the master bedroom and the office, and was pretty well wiped out. There was lots of smoke and water damage throughout the remaining structure (even soot inside cabinets in the kitchen), and, of course, about four feet of VERY dirty water in the recently-pumped-out basement. Anyhow, reconstruction is about done (thank goodness for great assistance from The Insurance Company). The house has been restored more or less to The Way It Was, with a little correction of stuff I was gonna get around to some day anyway. Everything cloth or upholstered (clothing, furniture, carpets, etc) REEKED of smoke ... some just got thrown out, some was rehabillitated by a commercial service. We're back living in the house, the DSL line is working again, and life is getting back to normal. The only casualties were The Parakeets, but now there is a central alarm system with smoke and heat sensors in every room. I'm sure now that I've gone to that expense, there will be no further cause to trust or employ the instalation. The new garage is a bit further from the house. That's the whole story, and I think I'm back to normal. I know I said that once before, so I'll avoid putting it into absolute terms.