Mine was, it turns out. On fire, I mean. I just didn’t know it until today.

The extraction and exclusion men came to seal up anything that needed to be sealed (nothing except one burrow hole under the foundation) and put some traps in the crawlspace and attic.

The one who went up in the attic came out in a hurry and asked if I knew that there had been a recent electrical fire in my attic.

No, no, I did not, but that would certainly explain the smoky smell I still can’t get rid of up there.

I went up there with him, and there it was – the remainders of a fire, carefully contained between two joists running from the front to the back of the house. The insulation is burned completely out, and the wiring is gone, but other than that it just…stopped.

I don’t know what happened, but to say that I am stunned would be an understatement.

That Thursday when it happened, when I thought the window unit up there had just been struck by lightning, it must have, instead, struck something else and caught on.

Fortunately that insulation is so old that it’s reduced practically to powder, elsewise it would likely have burned the whole house down, with my dog inside it.

I’ve left word for an electrician to contact me, and filed a claim with the insurance company, but man.

It all just seems so unreal.