Day #190: The World's on Fire, How About Yours?

 Of all the things that should irritate me today, probably the fact that Facebook won't allow me to change the error in today's post from Day #191 (incorrect) to Day #190 (correct) probably shouldn't be the biggest but there you are. Somehow, 80 years ago or so when I started counting days, it seemed like a good idea, now it's just not something I can figure out how to stop.

It's been quite the almost week since we last spoke, so let's try to run it down for you.

When I was last on here I was trying to draft a presentation for a job interview that could be conducted on Zoom. It was going well and Josh said he liked it but I should probably practice on someone else who could give better advice. It was a holiday weekend, though, so I hated to ask someone. Enter my wonderful BFF Sarah who was working on Monday (from home) but happily jumped on Zoom to spend a half hour listening to me and giving some great feedback that helped a bunch. Then off to enjoy Labor Day, including Max playing with Molly's kitties because, well, kitties are awesome.

Fast forward 24 hours and while I'm prepping for the interview to start, Sarah is watching her neighborhood burn down.

A word on forest fires if you'll indulge me. They're normal. We in the west have "fire season" the way other people might have "hurricane season." This, that's going on is NOT NORMAL. Blame climate change, blame human error, blame changes in forestry maintenance, blame all those things because likely all play a role, but right now hundreds of thousands of acres from California to the Canadian border are burning and there's nothing normal about that. What has also happened is population centers have spread into forested lands so there's not only more fire than normal but it's closer to population centers than it used to be.

In Washington, we are split apart by the Cascade mountains. The climate and topography east of the mountains is dramatically different than to the west. Forest fires on the east side are relatively common (although, again, nothing about this is normal.) Widespread fires on this side of the mountains are not. We have different kinds of trees, they store water differently, it's a different climate, so we don't have the fire cycles other types of forests have.

Back to Tuesday. All day on Monday the officials were terrified of fire. Monday was a holiday, there was a whole lot of camping going on, it's bone dry (September is often our dryest month of the year) and it was warm and windy. All prime ingredients for fire. And fire there was. In several places down near my dad's house (not anywhere super near to him, thank goodness, but that's the general area) there were widespread brush and wildfires that broke out Monday night into Tuesday. Including in Sarah's neighborhood. There were also widespread power outages which made it very hard for her to stay in touch and assure us she was okay.

Back to the interview for a moment. Never in my life have I had such an exhausting interview day. Note to the interviewers of the world: please do not try to ask 24 questions in an hour. It's not nice. I talk fast. I don't talk that fast. I also really like it when they have assigned you something to present if they give you a choice whether you would like to do that first or take questions first...if I'm allowed to do it first then I can get it out of the way and take the questions. I did not have that option. 

But whatever, it was what it was, I was able to get through it, they were very nice, I feel like overall it went well, but when finished the adrenaline hit was powerful and I was shaking. Thank God for my kids and their hugs. 

There was a part 2 of the interview in the afternoon, however, when I spoke to the staff with whom I would be working, so as I was spending time with my family waiting for that to start, 2 things were happening: first, the adrenaline was wearing off and I was crashing hard and second, I was worried about my friends and the fires.

The second interview was its own kind of challenge. I'll spare you the details, suffice it to say I don't think they had done this type of interview in a remote format before so it was short but very challenging. When it was over I had to put my head down on my computer I was so completely wiped. James was headed back online for school by then, so I decided I'd take Max for a walk, just a short one, and clear my head.

We have been lucky that there has been no fire near us but there for sure has been smoke. We have huge fires to both the west and south of us and the wind blows tons of smoke to us. So being outside, particularly on Tuesday, wasn't fun. But being with Max was. We just did the loop around our block and I kept hearing a siren. It kept getting closer and closer and I thought, gee, I hope everyone is okay. And then lights flashed and a ladder truck went right by us up to the end of our block. So that was disconcerting.

We are fine. The fire fighters in the truck got out with some gear and spent some time in the yard of a house...I don't think anyone was home at the time (this would have been about 3:30 in the afternoon.) They were there for 10 minutes or so, we watched the whole time, and whatever they were investigating they were satisfied because they left. Max found the whole thing fascinating. When they were leaving, once they weren't in a hurry, they stopped the truck and waved at him and stuff...he wasn't scared but he was so overwhelmed that they couldn't convince him to wave back. But it was a wake up call. We've been safe thus far but in these conditions a fire in someone's yard can get bad in a hurry. We finished our walk and headed home...where I learned the fires down south of us had gotten worse.

The video a friend posted that her 11-year-old son took while they were driving away and you could see fire below her house was haunting. She was driving and you could hear her freaking out (who wouldn't be) while her son filmed and just kept saying it's okay, mama, take a breath, just drive. They are fine. Today they got to meet the fire fighters who saved their house. It was very very close. The guys even apologized to her for throwing her deck furniture away from the house in an effort to save it, which of course no one was angry at them for.

My friend Sarah stuck it out for as long as she could. She's literally one house over from the red Go Now evacuation zone. Her mom lives next door and had bailed Tuesday evening to a family member's house to avoid being evacuated in the middle of the night. Sarah and her husband have dogs, though, so they stayed, but by early Wednesday they had relocated to a hotel if for no other reason than to get a breath of fresh air. It's late Thursday night now and they still haven't been home. They think their house is okay. Everyone I know is okay. The number of houses severely damaged is small. The fire fighters worked hard and the fire is mostly contained now but the main roads are still closed and the evacuation order is still in place for some areas. 

A new batch of toxic smoke air is expected to blow in from the ocean tomorrow. Like I say, fires are normal but the amount of smoke we've had from fires in California and elsewhere in recent summers is not. Hot days spent inside trying not to breathe the air aren't fun. But mostly we're just grateful that we've been far away from the actual fire. It's scary what has happened to my friends this week, and that's tiny compared to other places. Whole towns and ancient forests have been destroyed. It's just awful. 

No word from the people with whom I interviewed yet. At least one of my references told me she hasn't yet heard from them. Not reading too much into that. Whatever happens it was quite the experience to do. Yet another thing to make 2020 different.

Oh, and we had a Parent Teacher conference today. On Zoom, of course. Max napped through it, which was miraculous. James's teacher is very sweet. She chatted with us for a bit and then gave him some sight words which he rocked. The kid has a lot of trouble with attention and focus but he's an excellent reader. We are getting through distance school one day at a time and having books to read helps. 

Media consumption: I started my September book club book Jell-O Girls on Tuesday. I don't care for it very much...it feels elitist and out of touch to me and can't seem to figure its own story out. I probably would have put it down by now but it's the book club book so I'm trying to finish it. And I've read tons of great picture books with James. One of my favorites is Drawing on the Walls a picture book biography of artist Keith Haley that we loved and that inspired some of our own art today.

Today I'm grateful for peach pie, grocery day, Max hugs, that both of my children are sleeping, some down time today, slightly fresher air even if it is temporary, that my friends are okay and everyone and their house seems to have come through the fire, that libraries are a thing, and that I get one more day of health and happiness to spend here on this crazy planet with my kids.