15-10-29

I have never seen so many fire trucks in one place. And I don't know how this house didn't just fall down, though it's likely that it will be knocked down when all this is done. This photo was before it got bad. The far side of the roof was in heavy flame when I arrived. The front was doused with a high pressure jet of foam a few times. The flames got bigger, and then smaller, and then they disappeared, and then they came back. The house was in good shape before today. It wasn't a boarded up old house waiting for a fire to facilitate redevelopment. Time shift Street View suggests it was fairly heavily renovated 6 years ago.

I have a back up hard drive with all my digital photos on it and I know where my passport is and where a camera or two is, but I can't imagine the loss of a full on house fire. All we are is all we have. I don't mean that in a material sense, not specifically, but in a spiritual sense. Photographs are memories. Artifacts of our past are proof of our existence. The value of the artifact isn't in its resale value, but in your spiritual connection to it. To that end the material object might be a ratty old teddy bear you had as a kid. It might be worth a buck in a garage sale if you're lucky, but the memories caught up in the felted fur of that proverbial teddy bear are priceless.

This house burns down. Teddy bears are the only victims. Poor teddy bears.