Note to self: turn off stove before leaving house.

The other night, and by "the other night", I mean a few weeks ago, we got a knock at our door. It was the fire department. They were wondering if we knew the people across the street. Namely, they wanted to know if we knew how to get a hold of them (their cell phone numbers) or knew anyone who did.

Nope and nope.

I've waved to them in passing. And I know they have a kid, and they're Asian. But other than that...

Anyway, apparently the story goes that their stove was left on when they left the house and it caught on fire, and the fire department showed up and had to knock down their door to put it out, and there were 2 fire trucks and a police car out front for awhile, and nobody knew how to get a hold of the family.

And so I got to thinking, "What if that were us? What if it were my stove I left on, and after a lovely evening out, we return home to find a police officer in front of our house (the fire crew finally left when they determined the house was safe) to give us the bad news about our house cause none of our neighbors knew how to get a hold of us?

There are several people in our neighborhood who do have our cell phone numbers, but they all have one thing in common- they don't live on our street.

I remedied that situation the next day. I marched next door and insisted on exchanging cell phone numbers. (We've long since known each other's home numbers)

The one other positive thing to come out of this, besides the realization that I need to get to know my neighbors better even if most of them are renters and have no kids my kid's ages, is that my kids are now official jr. firefighters. After hanging out all evening outside watching all the excitement (or lack thereof) one of the firemen gave my kids all "jr firefighter" stickers for helping them keep an eye on things (from a safe distance in our driveway).