Tragedy Hits Close to Home

Yesterday, at around 1:30 PM my husband was at work, about 2 miles away from his parents house. His parents, my in-laws... we are very close with them, and their house is literally a second home to us. We lived there for a few years, and we know the neighborhood well, Hubby grew up there. We are there more than we are home! My daughter plays with kids in the neighborhood, and the neighborhood is very, very much home to us.

Where was I... Oh yeah. So, My hubby is at work, and suddenly they hear a giant BOOM. a huge explosion that rumbles through the building.

Turns out, the loud explosion was a house exploding, in his neighborhood, very, very close to his parents house.

You can find the whole story on wpxi.com, wtae.com, and even CNN and Fox News.

My husband drove over to his parent's house, and what should take literally 2 minutes took almost half an hour. The roads were blocked off and emergency vehicles were everywhere.

When he finally managed to get there, he discovered the windows blown out, glass everywhere.

A man was baby-sitting his 4 year old granddaughter. The man was killed. It's a miracle, but the little girl survived.

Here are photos I took from the news websites:





I also took my own photos from the scene. Thirteen of them, to be exact. Obviously I was not allowed to get too close, but I still managed to capture at least 1/100th of what was going on:

















This is my husband being interviewed by a reporter from The Pittsburgh Post Gazette.



You can see the reflection of gas lines still burning in this persons door:



The house was destroyed so bad by the blast, that there wasn't even one wall left standing.



News helicopters were everywhere.



Brian's sisters, Brian, and I helped to clean up some of the damage at his parent's house.



The neighborhood was crawling with gas men. They spent so much time at each house, we were giving them coffee. Reporters, news trucks, were everywhere. The windows had to be boarded up.

The whole thing was very... surreal. You see things like this on the news, but when it happens near you... it's just unbelievable.

Thursday Thirteen

For some reason I'm just not feeling inspired to write about anything else. I was going to make some witty remarks about American Idol, mainly about Garret's hair:



(DUDE, the 80's called... yeah yeah, you know how it goes...) but no, not tonight. Instead, I'm going to try out this Thursday Thirteen thing.

My list: 13 things that are coming up in my life that I am looking forward to.

1. Tomorrow I am getting a Flickr Pro account. Yay for more photos and albums!!

2. Sometime this weekend I am getting my hair done. The last time I got my hair done, I got it cut shorter in the back and longer in the front, dyed reddish, with blondish streaks in the front. I love doing new things with my hair!

3. This weekend I am getting a new sweater. It doesn't take much to make me happy, haha. It's a long one, with a hood... and I love it.

4. Maya is going to be in a science/art fair. For the science part, she is doing an experiment on whether or not music has an affect on our heartbeat. For art, she is going to make a sculpture.

5. Maya is going to be in a chess tournament! She takes chess classes now, and she is good.

6. I got invited to Ravelry which is an online knitting community, and I can't wait to check it out some more!

7. The weekend is ALMOST here! Yay.

8. Sometime soon, we are going to go downtown and to station square, and I can't wait to take tons of cool photos.

9. Hubby and I are goig to get a fancy schmancy hotel room. Once in a while it's nice to have some alone time!

10. I haven't been to Yoga class in a while, and hopefully this thursday I am going to go back. I love it. I go to The Yoga Loft. It's awesome.

11. I'm super excited that I am almost to number 13 because wow, coming up with 13 things is harder than I thought it woud be.

12. OH I know! Spring. Spring is just around the corner. I hope. I mean, it's almost March, in like a lion out like a lamb, right? I like to see the glass as half full.

13. Our income tax check comes tomorrow! Yay!!

Whew, that was tough. Next week I will try to be a little more creative!

P.S. Thank you to everyone who left me such wonderful and supportive comments on my Homeschooling post below! Also, Thanks everyone who shared with me what the daily zen meant to them. Very deep thoughts and great interpretations! I will try that again sometime!