December 15. Thursday Night.

Hi Journey.

Fire. At shop. No matter just now as to how it started but we have it dealt with, at least for now. Thank The Lord for firefighters. They were on scene within three minutes of Joni's call, dousing gallons of water on the dumpster out back.

Been up 40 some hours. Sorry if I'm a tad wiggy right now but can't focus but have to jot down the thoughts…sometimes in between scared and seeing there is an insight that comes rarely…keen and cutting like a blade recently honed.

Fire started and ended inside the dumpster out back. Mercifully the dumpster kept it completely contained. Smoke seeped in through the back office windows that face the alley, and through the back door. Not a ton, but enough to make the whole office reek all day yesterday and even linger about a bit during this afternoon.

Smoke: infinitely hard to defeat that smell once it oozes into everything, especially fabric. I'm afraid we'll need to pitch half our fabric and carpet swatches. The welcome mats we have stored in the storeroom should be ok, since they were in triple-thick poly bags. (I'll fill you in on those some other time, Journey.)

It's ok, ok, ok. Nobody's hurt. Nobody came close to being burned, and not even any smoke inhalation by staff; at least none that we know about. I'll feel better in a week or so once the staff all has a week's worth of sleep at night and no waking with sneezing or coughing or runny eyes. I want to make sure the staff is safe before I pronounce Crystal Designs safe. What is the shop without the staff, anyway? I can re-buy everything in that shop except the staff.

And the Trino family archives.

They're safe. The Tupperware bins shut the smoke out. Glad Dad didn't skimp and just stash everything in cardboard boxes.

I missed the whole thing; was en route back from a call over in Deerfield Hills. Nice client, Mrs. LePort; another referral from Lori Jeffers. Memo to self: Send thank-you note over the weekend. Another Great Room conversion. Pleasant lady, probably will try and cut me to the bone on margin, though. Everything about her house was neat-as-a-pin perfect. She was out sweeping off a wafer-thin layer of snow from her front walk when I arrived. Clients that organized usually look at our prices closer than our fabric swatches.

Joni came through, of course. She kept calm when she first smelled smoke. She checked out back, saw the fire, and instantly herded everybody outside while dialing Emergency Services on her cell phone. The dumpster contents were totaled. Anything that had been inside was ash by the time the fire department arrived, as were the plastic lids of the

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