Lesson Learned

I use AOL's Instant Messenger daily. It's an easy way to keep in touch with friends and family. And I often post a "status" message when I'm working from home, when we've gone off to church, or when we've gone up to bed.

Yet on very busy days, I may not even get to my computer until very late in the day. This was a problem yesterday. I gave my sister a horrible scare and I feel terrible about it.

This was the Acadia Chorale Society's Christmas concert weekend. We had two performances; one was Saturday night, and the other was Sunday afternoon. Sunday was such a busy day for us, we left for church early (8 AM) and didn't return until after church, errands, concert, and after-concert party (7 PM).

All the while my status message on Instant Messenger said I'd gone to bed. We were in such a hurry to leave yesterday morning, that I hadn't used my computer before leaving for church. In fact, we'd never turned on our cell phones because of church and concert etiquette.
My dear sister, Anne, couldn't reach me by computer OR cellphone. Since I'd recently blogged about how we're now using wood and propane to heat the house, she feared the worst.

We were unaware of her concern (and the concern of many others) until we pulled into our driveway last night and a Hancock County sheriff's car pulled in right behind us. He'd been trying to reach us for several hours, had contacted our neighbors, and told us to call my sister as soon as we got into the house.

As the sheriff pulled out of the driveway, he rolled down his window and called into us, "You DO have carbon monoxide detectors, don't you, now that you're heating with propane and wood?"

"Yes," we called back. Hmmm...did we? While I was reassuring my sister on the telephone, Al checked our smoke detectors.

I'll be stopping at Home Depot this morning. Those carbon monoxide detectors will be in place this afternoon.

Thanks, Anne, for taking such good care of us. I love you!