I never thought I'd say this but.....

THANK GOODNESS MY KID IS A PEST!
I have a daughter that could talk your ear off. Okay actually just mine. And it isn't a chat like you say something and then she says something....it's more like, I say something and she contradicts it, then tells me over and over each time becoming more elaborate, on why my idea or thought was incorrect. At some point I just tune her out. Especially when we are driving. There is no possible way for me to concentrate on the road AND be in my toes enough not to get verbally bathed by my daughter. So I let her do her defense attorney thing and debate my whole existance.
BUT this one time, I listened (okay it took a few minutes but still...)and it actually saved a life.
I live in this focused world with old lady eyes and bits of senility running rampant through my brain. Which means, if I'm driving somewhere, I only pay attention to the raod and the cars around me because I could easily forget what the heck I'm doing or get distracted by something I "thought" I saw. Which is exactly where my mind was yesterday when I was taking my daughter to a friend's house. She started changing everything I said the minute we left the house. So as we were turning onto the street where I was to drop her off, I was already in my just make it to the door without another disagreement mode.
But NOOOOOOO! Here is how it started:
Her: Ohhh I wonder what that is. (pointing to lights in a neighbor's house.)
Me: Probably just the menorah.
Her:Uh...I don't think so.
Me: Okay maybe it's the fireplace.
Her: Or maybe the menorah on the fireplace.
Me: Maybe(which is my way of saying PLEASE don't go any further...I'm tired of this.
Her: Well it doesn't look good.
Me: What?
Her: It doesn't look good, it looks like something is burning.
Me:Well maybe....(then I turned to look again)
Me: Looks like sparklers.......oh wait......oh crap!
This is when I told her to stay at the car and I went over to look in the window. Oh yeah, something was burning all right. The plastic table was on fire and what I saw as sparklers was dripping plastic burning it's way to the ground and hitting the floor. I told her to go get her friend's mom and tell her there was a fire. I banged on the windows and door. Rang the doorbell...no answer. There were two cars in the driveway so I thought someone should bethere. Anyway one guy finally came to the door and started pouring water on the fire which only made it worse.
To make a long story short I got him to help me carry the burning table outside where I doused it with a hose.
Turns out they had an oil menorah and somehow the oil caught the tablecloth on fire which in turn started the table...
On top of that, the man in the house was a house sitter AND he is an Orthodox Jew. As is the family that lives there. That would not have meant a thing except not only was last night the last night of Hanukkah but it was also Shabbat. SO for the Orthodox, they are not allowed to do any work. This includes turning on lights, driving cars... there is a myriad of things that is classified as worka dn i pretty much encompasses everything that isn't reading the Torah. That is until Saturday after sundown. So here this poor guy was, and he wasn't supposed to be answering the door much less carrying out a table or pouring water on something. I actually felt sorry for him. He was so torn about what he should be doing that he just kind of walked in circles.
Anyhow. It all turned out Okay. No one got hurt. The table was destroyed, there is a bit of smoke damage and burns on the floor but all in all it turned out okay.
And none of it would have happened if my daughter didn't pester me about what she was seeing.
The nice thing is the Firefighters praised her when they got there. She needed that.