Musings at Altitude

While I was in route home from Alaska yesterday, for some still unknown reason, the fire alarms in the house began to go off which really spooked our 14 year old.  Her 20 year old brother was home too, but that didn’t calm her anxieties any.  Her mother at the time was out shopping, but she called our builder and he walked her through some things to look for (and sniff for too I bet) and she passed these on to the kids and had them thoroughly search the house.  The alarms went away after awhile (thus the issue of “unknown reason”), but the anxieties for my 14 year old did not.

After a while, her brother wanted to go off to a movie, which she obviously did not want him to do, so they did what they always do to resolve the problem – called Mom.  Mom was only 10 minutes away, so she told our 14 year old not to worry and she’d be right home.

When Mom got home, the 14 year old was sitting out on the front porch in her Peter Budaj Avalanche jersey – the one thing in the house that she did not want to lose if there really was a fire.  My wife predicted she’d be out front and to anxious because of the alarms to be in the house alone.  But she was caught off guard with the jersey. 

It’s amazing what we view as precious when we feel at risk and collect a few things that we don’t want to lose.  We know what our 14 year old feels is precious – certainly not things that remind her of the family – nope, just things that remind her of the Avalanche.

PS.  I’d probably grab the blackberry and laptop!