Surge Protector

I want to preface this story by saying it was not funny when it happened. At all. It has grown funny as we have relayed it. We are able to laugh at it now. Without our hearts beating really fast. It was the day after Christmas. Around noon. As usual for the Hevesy's we are all still in our pajamas. Jim and Allison are in the living room watching a movie. The boys are in the basement playing video games. I'am in the kitchen doing laundry. We first suspected a problem when I pushed the dryer button and the microwave came on. That was wierd. Not wierd enough to alarm us though. I turned off the microwave. I came back and turned on the dryer. The boys yelled up "the TV went off." Still not wierd enough. "Turn it back on." Within minutes everything is turning itself on and off. Now we are paying attention. Must be something electrical. Our solution was to turn everything off. As it turns out that was wrong. Well, not so much wrong, as the worst possible thing we could have done! We went around started flipping switches. That's when we smelled smoke. Lots of smoke. Coming from the basement. Jim ran down and sure enough the basement is completely filled with smoke. We sprang into action. I called 911, Jim opened the basement door to let the smoke out. The kids ran around in circles. The 911 lady said we had to get out of the house. Yes! Good idea! I'am definitely calling her next time. So I say "we're not dressed." I start yelling to the kids "get dressed, get dressed!" They all ran to their rooms only to return a second later "What should we wear?" What should they wear? What does this say about my parenting? Oh mother, is it a bad idea to wear horizontal stripes to a fire? Does denim or khaki best match the red of the fire trucks? We got the clothing isssue resolved. We got out of the house. We put the kids and the dog in the car and drove them away from the house. That leaves me and Jim standing on the driveway. Without our coats. As I think back on this I still can't believe I did it. OK, I can but I hate to admit it. This is how the conversation went. Me- "I'm kinda cold, I forgot my coat." Jim- "I'll go get it." Me- "No, I wouldn't expect you to go back into a burning house to get my coat....don't be silly!.....could you also get my purse, my cellphone , and whatever baby pictures you can grab off the walls, our social security cards, and whatever savings bonds you can find....oh, and our wedding album! I think it's in our closet....no, maybe on the bookshelf...you know what, it's in the basement. I wrapped it up in plastic during the hurricane...hmmmm, well I guess not the wedding album...unless you think you could...don't do anything foolish just for me.....the important thing is we're safe....and we'll remember the wedding.....for awhile...." I got my coat and my purse and my cellphone. With my phone I decided to call one of our pastors. "Hello?" "Uh , hi, how are you? Good. Our house in on fire. Yea, the basement. No, don't come over, the fire department is coming. No, don't come. We're fine, do you know someone who can recreate weddings? Oh, never had to do that huh? Okay than, well I'll call you if it burns down, alrighty than, talk to you later." They came. So did the fire department...all 25 trucks. By the time they got there the fire was out. Actually, we're not sure there was ever an actual "fire." You see there was a problem with the electric coming from the pole outside. The electric was leaving our house in larger quantities than it was coming in. When we turned everything off, we sent all the electricity to the basement. Which overloaded the power surge protector, which caught on fire, and caused all the smoke. Not a fire department problem but a BGE problem. House saved. Tragedy averted. But by the looks of my "day after Christmas" house, the firemen were a little confused. They didn't know which room had been destroyed. "Have you recently been robbed?" "Will you be claiming all the rooms on your insurance?" I overheard 2 of them talking "Oh yea, total devastation, I'd junk it all and start over, a shame, it really is, you gotta feel for them.." "Did you see what the kids were wearing? Some things are just wrong..." Yeah, thanks for all your help guys. We aired the basement out, called BGE and were back to normal about ...2 years later.....well, not "normal" but look who we're talking about here.