Three bangs, a crash and a short mystery

Today this strange almost hot front came through and when I opened the door to come inside after a walk with the dogs, the house seemed stuffy.  So I opened up a door in the living room, the door to the screen porch and the front door, all on different sides of the house, and immediately felt the flow of fresh air begin to swirl through the detritus of dead air.

It was lovely, and since it was so warm out, the sounds of snow melting was like a symphony -- I lived in the moment with a big smile on my face.  But I wasn't paying enough attention to notice the temperature was dropping and the wind was picking up.

I was upstairs doing laundry when I heard the first bang.  As I always do, I blamed it on the dogs.  "Damn dogs," I said out loud, shaking my head and inhaling the fine spring air that was making its way up to the second floor.  Then there was another bang, and I went downstairs to investigate.  A sign that I have on the ledge that surrounds the living room at the base of the ceiling had fallen down.  I scanned the room to see if anything else had fallen.  All else seemed well.  The sign says DREAM, and as I put it back I thought "Yes, I will dream ... of green grass and sunshine and deep blue skies and ..."

And then it seemed as the whole world went mad as this gust of wind swirled around the house and slammed each open door shut harder than any mad child could even "dream" about!   It was so sudden and unexpected ... and loud ... that it scared the bejesus out of me!  A sweat broke out on my forehead, my underarms tingled and my heart thumped ... loudly!  I knew what it had been, but for three doors to slam shut at the same time is pretty freaky.  And did I mention, loud?

Since the air temp had gone down dramatically, I didn't bother to re-open the doors, but as I went by the dining room table to make sure the door to the screened porch was completely shut, I noticed that the table itself was covered in something.  Dirt?  Dust?  What the heck was it?  I went out onto the porch but couldn't see anything that might have been pushed in by a gust of wind.  I then noticed the floor was also covered in this fine dust -- it sort of looked like kitty litter. What the hell?

I went into the kitchen to get a dustcloth and began to clean up the table when I discovered the source.  The wind had blown the ash from the open fireplace all over the room.  And then my stomach sank.  For ... it is a two-sided fireplace, the other side is open to the living room.  Oh no!

I rushed in, but the ash  on that side had managed to confine itself mostly to the hearth and a little of the rug -- but not what I had envisioned -- like the dining room table, every piece of furniture totally covered!

I glanced up at the DREAM sign to see if it had changed to NIGHTMARE!!!  

It's not the type of situation one calls someone up to talk about:  You're never going to believe it, but I opened all the doors in the house and the wind slammed them all shut and ash went everywhere.

Are you sorry I blogged it?