When All About You Are Losing Theirs
January 21, 2000. Our daughter Debbie, 13 at the time, came home for lunch and discovered our house was full of smoke. She didn't know if there were still flames anywhere, but she went inside anyway, got the cats and a cordless phone and took them outside. She then called the fire department and her parents.
The fire department came and did a full check of the house. Their conclusion was that water had dripped from the filter of our saltwater tank down into the plug strip where everything plugged in, shorted it out and started a fire. The fire went up the wall behind the fish tank, and the heat grew so intense that the tank cracked and put out the fire. Our fish gave their all to save the house. Fortunately, the wall behind the tank had a brick facing, so the majority of the damage was from smoke and saltwater. I still miss Bozo, our clownfish.
Last Friday we went to a high school in Rohnert Park, north of here, and watched Debbie perform in a belly dance with the rest of her belly dance club. (Debbie's 18 now, in college, but the club was performing for a high school that was having a benefit involving dance acts.) She did great.
Two days ago I got a call from Debbie, via her cellphone. A tire had disintegrated on the freeway, and she was at the side of the road with her spare out. One of the nuts had gotten stuck in the tire iron and she wanted to know what to do. (Thread it back onto the bolt and rock the wrench until it frees up, I told her.) She finished changing the tire and drove to where she bought the tire and had them replace it.
As a parent, you wonder how your child will handle life's challenges, and you struggle to know when to help them, and when to let them learn for themselves. (Sometimes the harder thing is to do nothing.) It's reassuring to know that Debbie has a good head on her shoulders, and she keeps it there in emergencies.
A few nights ago, Debbie was having dinner with friends when one of them began choking on a bite of steak. Debbie's boyfriend, Richard, performed the Heimlich maneuver and saved his life. It's also reassuring to know that your child's friends can be counted on as well when it matters. Richard's a great guy. Someday soon I need to tell you what happened to Debbie and Richard on Star Wars Day.
Blog Tag: Chatter
Posted 6/02/2005 12:09:00 AM
L
On 6/02/2005 3:50 AM, 
Michelle said...
On 6/02/2005 9:17 AM, Twist of Kate said...
On 6/02/2005 11:45 AM, Melissa said...
On 6/02/2005 11:55 AM, dkgoodman said...
On 6/03/2005 4:08 PM, Mary said...
On 6/03/2005 6:50 PM, Lisa said...
On 6/04/2005 11:16 PM, Melissa said...
On 6/04/2005 11:44 PM, dkgoodman said...
8 Comments:
Great story Dave.
It's reassuring knowing they can cope without you, even though you secretly wish they'll ask for help on occasions. I hope mine is that level headed at 18 :)
I think as a parent you can only do your best and hope that they are paying attention. I would think that your daughter is so self sufficient because her parents raised her well, I mean I think you can definitely take some credit, don't you? Thanks for visiting my crazy space, come back anytime. Yes, the cemetery was the one is Westwood. I'll be back here again!
How ironic that the fish tank both caused the fire and put it out. How sad for the fish, though. Somewhere else in your web site you briefly mentioned this incident. I'm glad to hear the full story. I had imagined that someone had dumped the fish tank on a fire. It's reassuring to hear that it was an accident. :)
Debbie sounds like a great daughter. You and Connie must be so proud of her. I'm crazy about my dogs, but I would have loved to have had a kid like Debbie.
It's hard for me to picture you as the father of a grown child. I know that you are grown man, but I still think of you as being around 15 or 16. It's also hard for me to believe that grandfathers sometimes ask me out and they are around my age. How can that be? :)
You think of me as 15 or 16? That's funny... I think of me as 19. Too bad the gray hairs think of themselves as being older.
Ah, the irony.
Ah, the pride. ♥
What? I'm pithy today. ;)
[Nice to see you found one of my favorite bloggers, Kate, too. She's twistariffic.]
I'll stay tuned for the next good story.
sounds like she has a good head on her shoulders. It's nice when you can see that, as an adult, they've learned so much along the way.
Watching those reasoning skills improve is part of what I enjoy watching so much every day in mine.
At dinner tonight I told your fish tank story and two of the men present started rolling their eyes. Apparently, being self-proclaimed experts in such matters, they said that it's not possible for glass to break from exposure to heat if it is full of water. They said that the glass can't get any hotter than the water inside, therefore, the water would first have to boil out before it could get hot enough to break. That would mean that there would have been no water left to put out the fire. Personally, I think that their argument is flawed. I'm of the opinion that since it happened, it is therefore possible.
So Dave, can you help me out here? Not that it really matters in the grand scheme of things, but I would like to win this argument.I suppose I could get a fish tank and start a fire, but I would prefer to argue science. Any ideas?
Water weighs about 8 lbs. per gallon, so a 40 gallon tank would have about 320 lbs. of water in it.
I don't know exactly what caused the breakage, but as you've observed, it did happen. The frame was plastic, and it was on a wooden stand. Perhaps as the frame softened from the heat, the sides started to separate and the force of 300 lbs. of water cracked it. Or maybe the bottom sagged, or the frame shrank.
It was the back side of the aquarium, where the fire was. Perhaps one side was hotter than the other, and the thermal expansion cracked it. Or the water in the filter, cause of the whole thing, was overheated, and when the hot water hit the glass, with its cold water behind it, that did it.
Maybe something fell. I just know it broke.
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