I got up early one cold morning this week and began to stir about the house. My first remedy is putting together a warm pot of delicious Columbian coffee. You just can't beat coffee in the mornings. I get out my grinder (a necessity for any serious coffee drinker) and transform my whole beans into grounds. After the pot of coffee is made, I get a cup topped off by a small bit of whipped light cream. The aroma is great, but the coffee is "just right."
My second process on this cold morning was to build a fire in our fireplace. I got it started like I've done thousands of times before. This time some smoke found it's way into the house. I opened a few windows but somehow the smoke made a quick trip upstairs and the smoke alarm connected to our alarm system went off. That was the first time I had ever heard that alarm go off. Both Wilda and Rebecca woke up to the alarm which gives the alarm great credibility. Soon all was well and we were enjoying a great morning with coffee in hand and a great fire to warm us up.
One of my neighbors is a retired Fire Captain from the City of Atlanta. He has so many rich stories about fire experiences as you might imagine. We were chatting about my early morning experiences and he said something rather amazing to me. He said in all of his many years with the fire department and serving as a Captain, he had never in all that time ever witnessed a fatality with a residential fire that had an active smoke alarm with a good battery. Here is a guy that rolled out of the fire department every single day responding to multiple calls every day he worked. For an inexpensive tool like a "smoke alarm" that can save the life of a person or family, why wouldn't we have that in all of our homes. Recently, I heard Fire Chief Steve Morgan of the McDonough Fire Department say that the smoke alarm is the single most important item to protect lives from fires. He said, "put them everywhere." The value of a smoke alarm cannot be under-estimated.
"When the Smoke Clears" in our lives, maybe we need to think about some basic and simple things we can do to protect ourselves and those around us. The beginning of a new year is a great day to think about what is really important and some good choices we can make so that 2012 will be a great year for all of us.
