House Fire - and Auto Accident

UPDATED: As if today hasn't involved enough headaches, my youngest daughter just called to say she was in a fender bender down at Virginia Beach oceanfront. Fortunately, she is unhurt, but the car is not so well off. Hopefully, the other drive was at fault so their insurance can pay the repair bills.

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There are definitely days that I think that God - if there is one, and I do have my doubts at times - is trying to see what it will take to put me over the edge and simply end it all. Today was such a day. I had just left court on a petition for an estate matter client when I checked my voice mail on my cell phone which had been in silent mode only to find several frantic messages that there had been a fire at my house. With all the recent court drama and other issues, my first thought was I just cannot take any more and that perhaps I should go by the drugstore and fill a Xanax prescription and take the whole bottle. I maen, why do I seem to have my own personal ever present black cloud over me?

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I pushed aside the overdose impulse and went straight to the house - shown above in an old photo before the lower porch rail and front door rehab had been completed - to meet the fire department personnel. Fortunately, the damage was confined to the exterior of the second floor porch seen behind the tree limbs and the main structure was undamaged other than some dirt and water tracked in by the firefighters. More importantly, my tenants were physically unharmed and merely emotionally rattled. The cause is unknown - possibly a stray spark of unknown origin, etc. or spontaneous combustion in leaves accumulated behind flashing - but the electrical wiring all checked out fine.

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I will be meeting a contractor tomorrow to get an estimate and will secure another later in the week. Most of the cost other than the $500.00 deductible will be covered by insurance. With the post divorce wars, however, that $500.00 would have been better used towards paying off the former wife. As always, the boyfriend is a source of calm and stability. He lost a home to a fire some years back before buying his current house and had rebuild completely, so this mishap is minor in comparison and he helped me keep everything in perspective. He is the one that lined up the contractor coming by tomorrow, in fact. I'm not sure why he is so enamored with me, but I am lucky that he is.