I'm going to take a little leeway with this post because it didn't actually happen ON my commute, but after a long day of work, and then 2 hours in my "mobile office" (also known as Amtrak), all I really wanted to do was go home and relax and perhaps watch some mindless TV instead of working for several more hours like I usually do.  It had been one of those days.  Of course, on the days you most want to do that, it never happens.

The traffic was horrible getting home from the train station, so I figured I might as well stop and run a few errands since I wasn't going to get home until late anyway.  I went to the dry cleaners, stopped at RiteAid, and then went grocery shopping.  FINALLY, I'm on my way home, sure that my poor dog is very hungry by now.  I get home with numerous (reusable) shopping bags of groceries to put away and open the door that leads from my garage to my house, and WHAM, I was overwhelmed by the smell of gas.  It was so strong that I almost couldn't walk into the house.  I go into the kitchen, and the stove is on.....not on, exactly, because there is no flame, but it's on enough to be pumping out the gas. You know what I'm talking about.....like before the flame lights and the gas is coming out waiting to be lit.  My 17 year old daughter, who is wonderful and totally trustworthy, by the way, had come home from school for lunch and somehow left the stove on.  Well of course she had left after lunch and it had been on all day til I got home.  And did I mention that my poor dog is an inside dog?  The smell was so strong that within a minute or two, I was already feeling sick.  So I grabbed a mask (the kind that doctors wear....yes, I have them in my house for my allergies), and put the dog outside first (I had no idea yet how lucky I was that she was alive).  I quickly opened every window in the house, opened the sliding glass doors, opened the garage, etc, so there would be as much wind though the house for cross ventilation.  I then put the groceries away (only the ones that needed to go in the fridge), and then grabbed my computer and went outside.  I was afraid to even turn on a light for fear that any kind of spark might set something off.

I did a search to see if there was anything specific I should do and every single response I saw said to call the fire department. So I did.  Better safe than sorry. They immediately said to stay outside and they were on their way.  They were at the house within minutes, big firetruck and all, and proceeded to tell me that not only was I incredibly lucky that my dog was alive, but that I would have to be out of the house for the next 6 hours at the very least while they ventilate the house and "treat" the air.

So I ran upstairs, changed my clothes into a pair of sweatpants, grabbed a jacket, grabbed some dog food, a bottle of water, my computer and my kindle, picked up my dog and a blanket and left.  I stopped to buy some food and then finally thought to myself "where the heck am I going to go for the next 6 hours"?  That's when reality hit me and I realized my dream of going home and relaxing or going to bed early is now completely gone.  My poor dog and I went to the park so that both of us could eat, and I figured I might as well get some work done.  It kind of felt like perhaps I had no home because I was sitting at a park with just a blanket, a hungry dog, and a few precious items, with really no where to go and nothing to do.  So I ended up doing several more hours of work after all.  Then we just hung out for a while, I read my kindle, my dog took a nap (I really wanted to take a nap, too, but figured that probably wouldn't be the best idea), until eventually enough time had passed and we FINALLY got to go home. When we got there, we couldn't smell the gas at all, so whatever they did worked (thank you firemen!).  I think I went to bed at about 2:00am that morning (my daughter just happened to be staying overnight elsewhere that evening).

Rest assured, to those of you who are wondering, that not a day has passed since then that I haven't given my daughter a major guilt trip for this event.  For example, when she comes home and goes to hug the dog, I remind her that she better spend extra time with the dog because it was very recently that she tried to kill her.....or when she comes to give me hugs and kisses before she goes to bed, I tell her that I think I deserve some extra hugs and kisses because she recently tried to blow up my house and kill the dog.  Yes, I absolutely believe in blackmail and guilt trips.  Especially since she's a really good kid, and still gives me hugs and kisses at 17 years old.  But hey, she needs to punished somehow, right???