Our good friends Matt-n-Chris have suffered a serious loss. Last night their house burned. The good news is that they weren't injured, they are insured, and the really irreplaceable things were either in storage or wrapped up due to the construction. I have been trying to wrap words around it, unsuccessfully, and then our friend George sent this email around. Since I had no words he said I could use his.
Hey folks:Short version: Casa Vorobek caught fire this afternoon. Back half burned. Everyone is okay. They will rebuild. We got drunk.
Long version: I just got back from topping off two bottles of zinfandel (Biale, quite nice) and one bottle of tempranillo (Dare, delicious) on Danmatt & Chris's frozen front stoop. Sad news today: the upper floor of their house caught fire and flames tore through the roof. This happened at around 1:30pm. The top floor is fucked (bathrooms, computer room, hallway), the second floor is screwed (new construction, hallway) and water is dripping down into the kitchen and has collected in the basement. Ashes, debris and puddles are everywhere. It smells blackened and crusty and looks like an alien gave birth in there. All is not lost, however: the TV room is fine, the living room & dining room are okay. Basic structure is fine. Since construction workers & Dorobek were there when the fire broke out, it was as contained as possible.
Though it did make the news.
Good news is: no one was injured & it happened during the day while people were there to deal with it. Culprit seems to be one of those corkscrew CFL lightbulbs, but no one really knows just yet.
The guys have been staying with Danmatt's parents in Potomac during house construction anyway. Looks like they'll be there for longer now. Daisy is fine. Actually, shockingly/unsurprisingly, she sidestepped this death sentence, too! She's now 1,276 years old.
Matt & Chris are okay. Matt is a trooper: he's taking this as a challenge. The current challenge is to see how exquisitely he can make over the house! Chris is really sad. He was brave tonight, but he's very upset. But these guys are tough. Perspective and wit intact. Given enough wine, someday they'll look back and...drink more wine.
An insurance contractor was there tonight. Someone called him. He said: "Yeah, we're at 2710. Just stop the car when you see a bunch of people drinking wine on the front doorstep." Let me say this: the wine was very good. I paired it myself. Zinfandel has the spicy chutzpah to counter the charred stew of their home.
Funniest part: The neighbor has a stoner roommate. He got this telephone text message while at work: "Dude. Your house is on fire. But it's cool now. You should probably come check it out."
I'm sure (they) would welcome a happy thought!
George
You probably recognize the place from a good portion of my Flickr stream.