How I Almost Set My Parents House on Fire

Just when I was thinking that I had some sort of intelligence, I do something as stupid as I did yesterday. I almost set my parent's house on fire. Here is the little story.

One Monday morning, Reanne wakes up bright and early at 5 am to get ready for work. Sadly, bright isn't the right word to describe her, as she is sluggish and drugged from sleep, barely aware of anything around her. She moves automatically doing her daily morning ritual. Somehow, she has enough consciousness to be aware that the water dish is empty in the snake cage. This snake is not her own, but one she was pet-sitting that summer for a friend from college currently out of the country. She opens up the cage, refills the water and heads back down stairs to join her father in their morning commute to Portland. Before she leaves she gets this feeling of that she's forgetting something, yet nothing pops into her head.

What she has forgotten is the fact that the heating lamp that normally sits on top of the snake cage was set on the floor when she opened up the cage to refill the water dish. The lamp wasn't on because its set to a timer that turns it on around 9:30am. Time passes, and sometime around 11 her wonderful brother Ryan, who luckily was home cause he doesn't have a job, noticed smoke filling the upstairs, mostly coming out of Reanne's bedroom. He finds a smoldering fire where the heat lamp is. The fire department is called and no serious damage occured, only one ruined t-shirt, a computer cable and a large chunk of Reanne's pride.

I hope you enjoy this story, and remember what dangers can happen with a sleepy forgetful Reanne!