a hundred visions and revisions

Today at the library one of the teens came running up to us at the desk yelling, "There's something on fire outside!" Of course we all immediately ran for the windows, where we saw several bushes next to the English Lutheran church's parking lot up in flames, with lots of smoke billowing out over downtown. At first it didn't seem like anyone else had even noticed, so Jennifer got on the phone and tried calling the library's security and the office for the church to get ahold of people. Finally a few security guys from the library ran out with fire extinguishers, but they couldn't get it out, and eventually the fire truck had to come out. Whew! We were all worried that the fire was going to jump from the bushes to a nearby tree, or that the car parked right next to the fire would be damaged. Luckily things were under control pretty quickly after the fire department arrived, although the bushes looked pretty sad. It looks like it was probably caused by a cigarette that someone threw out without making sure it wasn't still burning. I'm glad it turned out to be a relatively minor thing and easily handled, but it was still by far the most exciting thing that happened in our day!