How to prevent forest fires 101...just for Big Daddy!

 "Only you can prevent forest fires."   

                                                                           smokey bear

 Smokey the Bear, Smokey the Bear.
Prowlin' and a growlin' and a sniffin' the air.
He can find a fire before it starts to flame.
That's why they call him Smokey, 
That was how he got his name.

It's that time again!!!!

Yep!  Just like I promised a few nights ago, it's time for another one of those infamous "Big Daddy" stories.

It was several months ago.  It was as typical night...as typical as they get at the "off color family's house".  It was about four months after "Big Daddy" had been in the hospital getting stents put in because of a heart attack.  He scared the bejeebers our of all of us.  I was out hiking with a minister friend of mine somewhere up in Indiana.  I called to tell him that I would be a later getting home because we were going to share another cup of coffee.  "Big Daddy" sounded weird.  When I asked what was wrong he simply stated...."my chest has pressure, I'm sweating all over and I have pain in my arm."   I tell him to call 911 because he is having a heart attack.  He informs me that he will go to the doctor when I get home and after a job interview he had that afternoon.....I never did say that "Big Daddy" always makes wise decisions.

I speed home, pack him a bag for the hospital, take him to his job interview even though he has sweat dripping off of him and he can't get his breath (he did not get the job).  I drop him off at the ER and park the car.  By the time I got inside, they were carting "Big Daddy" off to the heart institute where he had some emergency "stenting" done.

Because of this "small" heart attack (it was in a very dangerous area----typically folks don't make it to the hospital with a blockage in this area---usually called a widow maker), the doctor and I inform "Big Daddy" that he had smoked his last cigarette.

Several months later, it seems "Big Daddy" had actually quit smoking.  I was so proud of him, but little did I know....

"Big Daddy" was doing some sneak smoking.....

Fast forward...

It was the typical night at with the "Off color" family.   We have supper, shower and "Big Daddy" and I head to bed early because I was due at work early (0344 am).

We huddle down, close our eyes

and

head off to "sleep wonderland" 

snoring and sleeping

Around midnight, our doorbell rings....

the dogs go crazy, especially the Cecil Dog....

I hear..

"I've already called the Fire Department, I just wanted you to know...."

A flurry of rushing...

I hear "Big Daddy" run out back,

down the deck from the second floor,

and then

hear the

water hose full force.

I wipe the sleep from my eyes...

pull on a pair of shorts to go with my very lovely night shirt....

and

I head out the back door.

OMG!!!!

Fire is every where...

All along the side of the house

moving all the way down the fence line

Flames are shooting up

higher than

"Big Daddy"...

and

there stands

"little ole Big Daddy"

standing in the middle of the yard in his boxer underwear and no shirt...

holding a tiny little water hose

fighting the fire...

He is our hero you know...

Off color daughter and son come out on the back deck and look down upon him in the yard and we watch

as

"Big Daddy" attempts to fight a forest fire (well it did look like one when the flames got close to our house).

We hear the fire engines coming....

firemen in their little hats

rush to our back yard with their big hoses...

much bigger than the one Big Daddy was holding.

Off color daughter looked at me....

"how do you think this one happened?"

I rolled my eyes and we smiled.

It took the firemen quite a while to get the fire put out at the off color family house.

When "Big Daddy" finally comes to bed,

I roll over and say..

"What do they think happened?"

Big Daddy says....
"I don't know...."

"They think it might have been some kind of loose wire."

I turn over in bed...

smile..

and

head off to sleep.

Sometime the next day,

I give "Big Daddy" a ring on his cell phone...

i get his message...

and

"This is what I said..."

"Yes Big Daddy.....This is Smokey Bear and I was wondering if you needed any advice about how to prevent forest fires."

"Big Daddy" finally admitted to the fact that he had

snuck out on the deck,

took a quick puff off of one of those cancer causing heart attack making chemical filled cancer sticks...

then tossed it still lit off the side of the deck

where it landed inside of a large tree stump where we'd just had a tree cut down....

So "Big Daddy" is still a smokin'

it is not very sexy hot, you know!

but

he is now very careful

where he throws away the evidence...

How to prevent forest fires 101...

don't toss a lit cigarette over the side of a second floor deck into a hollowed out tree stump......ever...ever....

So if any of you

need

the advice given to "Big Daddy"

first of all

"don't smoke"

secondly...

do what you can to prevent forest fires...

If you don't..

Smokey Bear might be callin' you..

Only YOU can prevent forest fires.......

Happy Thursday Evening

and

Hugs...