TLDR: I’m fine. Donate to the Red Cross https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation.html/

What a strange couple of weeks!

Coming back from a short walk (I work from home usually) on Thursday 10/23/25 I saw a ton of fire vehicles down the road. I thought maybe it was the construction site next door but as I got closer, the depth became clearer and I sprinted ahead. The top floor of the triple decker from which I leased the first floor had a fire. The pictures look almost peaceful and idyllic but just behind me there were 3-5 fire trucks. It was loud and chaotic.

I asked the fire chief if I could go inside to get my cat, but he said no. It seemed liked there shouldn’t be a serious problem on my first floor, but it was still nerve wracking. I didn’t know if the place was filling with smoke or what. They were ripping the third floor window out with hooks and throwing smoking junk out. Some firefighters were on a ladder sawing through the roof and they brought a fire hose up the stairs. Time was very confusing. I kept looking down at my phone, thinking 20 minutes had passed but it had been 2 minutes. All told they had whatever was going on up there (I still don’t know the extent or cause) under control in 20 minutes or so. They escorted me in to get the cat at that point.

Once I scurried away to a side street away from the chaos with the cat, I called my girlfriend who was coming home from work to let her know what was up.

The Red Cross was there soft talking to the residents, handing out blankets, etc. They gave us about 500$ no questions asked to get us through the next couple days. I am fortunate enough this was not necessary for me, but what an essential service. It is a jarring shocking experience, and I can easily imagine this setting a whole life off its rails into dark places.

Please donate to the Red Cross https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation.html/

On the other hand, 500$ is triage. For cost of living where I am, if you don’t have a cushion of savings, it is a joke. I hope there are other systems that come into play to help people in that situation. The red cross also did follow up calls.

We were escorted in again to get a bag of clothes and gather up laptops and crucial papers (checkbook, passports, etc). There was water pouring out of the light fixtures and it stank of smoke. We were very lucky to ultimately have little damage other than a ruined rug and some damage to the couch. I was worried for my books that night as they are the most valued possessions that I had to leave behind. I love my books. At the time we didn’t know how much damage there was going to be. Someone there suggested the possibility of the ceiling collapsing from water. This never happened.

The other floors got it rougher and that really sucks. I think especially the third floor (obviously).

During that night, I had a hard time estimating how out of it I was. At one point I accidentally left the keys in the truck of the car, but luckily the door was still unlocked. This is not typical for me.

Again, we are very fortunate. My girlfriend’s parents live within 30mins and we were able to stay there for 2 weeks while we figured stuff out. We slammed out some apartment showings that weekend and had an application in that Monday.

They were very strangely thorough about our references and it was taking a long time. We found out it was because our current landlord gave us a bad reference. Apparently, they did a walkthrough of our apartment and saw we had a portable clothing washer. When I found out about the bad reference the next Thursday, that was worst night for me. The next day though the new landlords seemed impressed enough by our other qualities to look past the bad reference and we had the lease signed that Saturday. Again, we are very fortunate.

Another point that disquieted us a lot was that our apartment was immediately padlocked and we needed to ask permission to get access to our things, pack and move. I do not know if this was the city or a voluntary choice on the part of the insurance adjuster (a profession I was not aware of) and landlord (I suspect the latter). I do not know what our rights actually were and everyone staying on everyone’s good side seemed like the wisest course of action. Ultimately, we were able to get out without too much problem, but we were hanging on our phones and stressed. We didn’t get access or much of a response during the weekend and had to take time off work to pack, which I feel was unfair. Once the lock was off for the day, they didn’t hang around, so I don’t get it.

I did not have renter’s insurance but my girlfriend did. So far, this has only been a mental drain and no help. It added a worry about whether we were supposed to move damaged stuff or wait for someone to look at it, but they never came. It is not clear if we will clear the deductible. If our belongings had received more damage, hopefully this would be a different story.

Anyway, our stuff is now in the new nicer place, we don’t have to arrange anything with anyone, so it is a day to unwind a little.

Back to blogging!

I saw a crazy like double or triple rainbow that week.

Food for thought, the various kinds of my typical work stress were about as much a weight on me as all of this. What the fuck does that mean?