Not One to be Reckoned With

While I was in Wisconsin there were thunderstorms, hail, tornadoes, flooding, the draining of an entire lake into the Mississippi River, countless homes damaged and destroyed, farm animals drowned, and much more mayhem.

Now I'm in California, where there are fires. There are the Mendocino fires, and there is the Humboldt fire, in SoHum, in Paradise/Shelter Cove area. The Paradise fire is not contained. Today we are driving the kids to "Surf Camp" (about 15 minutes north of our house, at the lovely lovely Moonstone Beach - lucky kids, I say) and we drive by a sign saying that Highway 299 (the highway one would take to get to Blue Lake, where Mike sometimes rents hot shop space, a mere 10 minutes from where we live) is shut down due to fires there. The last I heard on the radio several communities in Humboldt and Mendocino Counties have "evacuation warnings" meaning an evacuation isn't mandatory, but might be a very good idea.

I guess last weekend while we were in Portland there was a "lightning storm" here that has started all of this mess. Being a windy and wooded place, fires travel faster than Cal Fire can fight them. So far, where I live the skies are still blue (unless they are foggy). Send good thoughts to our fire fighters (and SoCal's fire fighters, who are on loan to us to contain these fires) - may the fires be contained and the damage be minimal.

And it hasn't rained here in almost a week! The first time since I've lived here that I have wished and hoped with all my might that the rain would just fall and help us!

P.S. We are safe here, so please don't worry, but that doesn't mean folks around us are bearing so well.