By Dr. Paula Bloom
If there was a fire and you could only do or take one thing from your house what would it be? Would you take pictures? Jewelry? Start cleaning up before the firefighters arrive? Which one doesn’t fit in here?
My husband woke me up at 5:45 AM to tell me there was smoke downstairs. He looked around and couldn’t figure out the source of it. As I took a zombie-like walk down the stairs I noticed a disgusting stench. We looked all around and couldn’t figure out where the smoke was coming from. After a few minutes of unsuccessful detective work we decided to call the Fire Department. They were at our home within minutes. A shout out to our fire department and to public servants everywhere!
As we awaited the fire department, I decided to tidy up a bit. The throw pillows went back on the couch, a blanket the kids had left on the floor got folded. I wouldn’t have done these things if I had seen an actual fire (gosh, I hope I wouldn’t have.) Why would I clean up? Do the firefighters really care about the neatness of my living room? Granted, we had already gotten the kids up but cleaning up came before getting myself out of the house? My professional opinion is that was pretty nutty.
Thankfully, the smoke was coming from the motor of the refrigerator. The fireman told us that there was quite a bit of dust behind the fridge and that had the motor caught fire the dust would have made things worse. He recommended that we pull the fridge out once a year to clean behind and under it. (Make sure you all do that, oh and check your smoke detectors!) My first thought was ”Man, it hadn’t occurred to me to clean behind the fridge..but did you notice how neat the living room was?” Next, I got into a place of gratitude that there wasn’t a fire, all the family was safe and the only lingering issue would be the smell and the possible expense of a new fridge.
Most of us have thought about, or been asked, “If there was a fire would would you save?” Or the classic desert island scenario… As someone who thinks, loves and blogs about shoes I ask myself, “What 3 pairs of shoes would I take with me?” Of course, shoes are replaceable but what if they weren’t? These days my 3 would be the Crocs Madeira, because I can wear them from the pool, to work, out to dinner and BTW, those are what I put on during the “fire”; the Born Kote clog, because they are a very comfortable 4″ shoe (which I’m wearing as I write this and LOVE them); to counteract the 4″ wedge/platform shoe I’d make a practical choice—either a sports sandal like Teva (which I have worn for years) or Chaco(which I just tried for the first time.)
Wait. Really? Only 3 pairs? Forget it, I don’t like the desert island shoe question. My new question: What pairs of shoes am I going to bring for next month’s 2-week trip to Europe ? Ah yes, way more fun to think about that one. Stay tuned…
Three of The Shoe Shrink’s “Desert Island Picks”
