I have done some stupiod things in my life but none so stupid and dangerous as Friday’s supper. My dad loves hot dogs, so I was boiling them in a pan of water, with the cover on except a small opening for the steam to rise. Okay, so as you know I suffer from anxiety attacks, I took my meds (which I take 4 times daily) and they caused me to become nervous, (or I was nervous and anxious allready) climbing the walls with emotion, so I went upstairs and sure enough I went upstairs to lie down on the bed. BIG MISTAKE, something I will never do again, ever again.

The water in the hot dogs evaporated and the pan became so hot it burnt the hot dog meat and was smoking like crazy. I had no idea how long I laid down and will never do that with something cooking in the kitchen ever again.

The smoke was thick and filled the kitchen, went into the living room wgere my dad was watching TV oblivious to the smoke! It didn’t set off the smoke detectors because there wasn’t enough I imagine and the way our house is set up the smoke detectors are in the hallway and another by the hallway by the kitchen.

I beleive because of my emergency repsonse training I knew exactly waht to do, came downstairs, and opened the front door my dad and he wasn’t even choking, headed to the stove, shut off the burner, cover the pan and soaked the pan in the sink and started opening all the windows and doors. Luckily it was warm enough and raining so the smoke fumes dropped. I sent my dad upstairs to his room, opened his windows, and closed the door, I told him what was going on, we were safe, but not to come out until the smoke cleared. You could see the smoke fill almost halfway in the kitchen and the lower portion of the room was clear. I have seen this phenomen in a straw house wearing fire fighter’s turn-out gear when the Massachusetts Fire Fighting Academy gave me a Fire Brigade Training years ago.

I was going to call the fire department but there was no fire, the hot dogs were just smoking and the water cooled the pan, that pan is now gone.

I sat down on the kitchen table with the image of my dad, thanking God he didn’t become overcome with the smoke and my promise I will never cook anything ever again, unless I am in the kitchen. That includes the toaster oven, microwave, ove and range. I just wanted to share this with all of you because I was scared at how this incident affected my weekend and thats all I have to say at this moment, Please I don’t deserve any cheers, give them to someone who really deserves them, I don’t really want to talk about it, I think God, our Mighty Creator, sends us messages, there was a reason I smelled the pan burning and came downstairs. Thank God my dad was saved! That’s all that really matters to me was his life and I don’t want to think what I would have doen if I didn’t wake up like I did. It’ll never happen again like that I promise you that. It’ll never happen again I promise myself. I just wanted to share that with all of you. No need to send any comments… It’s going to take me a long time to heal from this episode, this event, life threatening event and how I came this close to hurting my dad, my 88 year old dad, just sitting there and not realizing the smoke around him. I feel like I failed to properly take adequate care fo him, and that what my job in life is now, isn’t it? That’s why I am living her with him because my sister and I don’t want to place him in an assisted living home, together we won’t let that happen. Amen!