Flashback Friday

The year was 1999. Or 1998. Or 2000. I don't remember exactly. It was springtime in Tucson. Michael was my boyfriend and we were hanging out at my house. (It's weird to think that what was my house is now referred to as my parent's house.) (It's also weird to think about Michael being my boyfriend. It seems like we've just always been married.) Nick came home from somewhere and parked the car in the garage.

This is the conversation that ensued about 35 minutes later.

Natalie: Do you smell something?

Michael: Yeah, it smells kind of smoky.

Nick: Like someone is making bbq or grilling.

Natalie: Yeah

Nick: Actually, it smells really smoky.

Michael: Hmm, almost like something is on fire.

Natalie: Oh, my god! Smoke is coming out of the garage!

The three of us went out to the garage where smoke was pouring out of the door. We didn't see any flames. Interesting. We went in and saw the smoke was coming from under the car. Michael opened the garage door while Nick looked under the car.

When Nick had come home he had parked the car on top of one of the dog's beds. One of the dog beds made out of fabric, cotton batting and cedar chips. The catalytic converter was sitting on the bed. A catalytic converter operates at 1,200 to 1,600 degrees (I googled it). That's a lot of heat to be sitting on top of cotton and cedar.

Nick grabbed the bed and threw it into the driveway. The rush of oxygen caused the bed to go up in flames.

This is a pretty accurate representation of what that looked like.

Nick: Oh my god the bed's on fire!

Natalie: Go get the hose and turn it on!

We blasted that bed with full power hose water for a good 5 minutes. We turned off the hose.

Michael: Oh my god! The bed is on fire again! Get the hose!

Nick: Turn it on! Full power!

Another 5 minutes.

Natalie: Oh my god! The bed is still on fire! Go in the house and get some baking soda or baking powder or something!

We dumped as much powder as we could find on that bed.

Nick: Help! The bed is the son of Lucifer. It's still on fire!

Michael: Someone call 911 and a priest!

We ended up leaving the hose inside the bed for a good 20 minutes. It finally cooled off enough and got soaked enough that it didn't reignite when we cut the water off.

This is the actual bed that caught on fire. Sam, thank goodness, wasn't on the bed when Nick parked on top of it. No beagles were injured during this incident.

Maybe next Friday I'll tell you about when 16-year-old Nick tried to brew beer in his closet. It was going to be a Father's Day present. The results, which included a lot of broken glass and an insurance claim, were not exactly Sam Adams.