I just heard that the school supply building for a neighboring town burned down early this morning. Thankfully no one was hurt -yet. Most of the initial school start-up supplies had gone out to the classrooms already, but not the Big Ticket Stuff and the yearly supply of paper that had been laid in. A year's worth of paper for a school, that's a lot of paper. They lost 60 laptops about to go out, 20k of musical equipment, and the new printing press that they had bought in the spring to serve the school. It had been intended for use over the next several years.

So I say no one has been hurt yet. This is not the way for anyone to be starting the year. All the forward planning, all the satisfaction in knowing that they had laid in the necessary things, that's gone in the same smoke that consumed all that paper. Sure, there's insurance, but that's going to take some time and it still won't make up for what's been lost. Like school records, old ones, that are gone.

Makes me stop and think, and then be very grateful for what I still have.