On the evening of Feb 21st, our home exploded

How strange, the post just prior to this was written sometime during the day of the 21st of February. That night after Keith had spent most of the day shoveling the neighborhood and then our "flat" roof, at about 10:45 he took a shower. When he turned off the water, the hot water heater lit and our house exploded. The shower was about 6 feet through the wall from the hot water heater. He was covered with glass shrapnel and cut his feet badly trying to get out of the damaged house. I was on the other side of the wall in our master bedroom in bed listening to my ipod under the covers when the place blew. One of the cats was at the foot of the bed, she ran screaming to the back of the house and the other cat who was in the living room must have run downstairs.

Our neighbors were the first there and soon the medics, fire department and police. Long story short, we were not so badly hurt but went to the hospital so they could pick the glass out of Keith and check both of us out.

The Red Cross put us up in a hotel for one night, then we stayed with Barry and Diane for a night, then moved to Carol and Gary's house with the cats. Carol was going to go down to Florida so she had us housesit. It was generous beyond belief. The house was declared damaged beyond repair. Because we had no real fire, the contents were blown around but not soaked from firehoses. Many things were saved. 

We were in the part of the house shown as that black box area. That was the sauna in our bedroom suite. The picture shows no garage any more and contents of the garage and house blown all over the cars and driveway. The temperatures were extremely cold and forensic investigators declared that this is what caused the gas leak. Oddly, we smelled nothing. 

Here it is July 5th and we moved downtown to the Waldo at 8th and Elm for temporary housing. Our house was demolished except for the stone wall and slab from the living room. We have a new house planned but ground has not broken yet. 

We postponed all gallery and building activities for a while and are just now getting some work done on the building again hoping to open in late Sept. We will see if that can happen. 

I retired after the semester in May, having had one of the best advanced classes in my history. These students were remarkable and the best of all worlds, now that I am not teaching, they are my friends and colleagues. We had a toast at the house site earlier this summer and most of them showed up. It was a wonderful time. 

So, we will see how life moves on and when we are finally not homeless blokes.