Surreal & Scary

Things have been strange around here the last few days. There is a fire burning near my house. A 2,000+ acre forest fire to be exact, separated from our place by a highway, and a fire wall that has been burned and bulldozed.

I'm not sure how to react to this situation. Forest Rangers have assured me that the fire cannot cross the road, so we are "safe". But when you stand in your front yard and have ash raining down on you, and all you can hear is chainsaws, bulldozers, helicopters, and sirens, it's hard to remain calm.

This picture was taken before they shut the road down yesterday. It was so weird, driving by, hearing the fire crackle, and feeling the heat.


This picture was taken this morning. It's a bright sunny day here, can you tell?

I am alternating between feeling okay, knowing that all will be well, and just falling apart, finding myself sobbing.

Thursday night it was so bad here we had to leave. The smoke was thick, and we could see a wall of flames from our windows, so we packed up important papers, my grandmother's weavings, photos, children and the cat and dog and went to my mom's house. Thankfully the fire didn't move closer, but our cat has disappeared. Poor Laura is worrying and we have looked and looked. Gavin just printed up some fliers that we will hang later, but I am thinking we don't have a cat anymore.

Last night when we were getting ready to leave my mom's place, Braeden got hurt while playing, and we had to take him to the emergency room to have his nail bed reset and stitched into place. He handled it like a trooper, and I didn't pass out, so all will be well. We have to visit a hand surgeon on Monday for follow up though.

And...Somebody hacked into my e-mail account, and sent out a mass e-mail. So if you received an e-mail from me telling about the fab electronics deal I found, don't believe it.

If I am being perfectly honest with you all, I have to say that the past few days have been pretty sucky. But I am aware that there is goodness in all of this. The fire hasn't crossed the road, and (I hope) is still on the nature preserve. My family has been perfectly awesome, so supportive and helpful. We have health insurance, and the staff at the hospital were great. It shouldn't be too difficult to find a new kitten for Laura if I need, and at least whoever hijacked my e-mail didn't send out smut or "enhancement" advertisements, if you know what I mean.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope your weekend is going much better than ours!

Comments

[Sarah]

Oh my.

What a scary thing that fire is.

(And hard to imagine such a big fire when all it has done here for a month or more is rain!)

[Heidi]

Oh Breanna, what a truly awful week you've had! I just got finished reading an article in our paper about a small town in Colorado that had to be completely evacuated on Tuesday because of a wildfire. About 20 homes were lost and it just sort of come out of nowhere. Just from reading accounts of it I could tell that it was incredibly scary, so I can imagine for you where you are living it, it's much, much worse. That on top of all the other things you're dealing with--it's no wonder you feel like crying! Take care, I'll be thinking of you!

[MOM]

Breanna and Daryl,

You guys have handled things tremendously
well--and if you cry it is "OK", I feel
terrible about the cat--I went down the other road last night with my lights seeing
if I could spy a set of eyes.

Christa volunteers at a pet shelter and they
had 6 abandoned baby kittens--they are bottle feeding them. Might be an idea for
Laura. Also I will walk down and knock on
doors today. I read that animals sense danger such as smoke etc. and will go hide--
Well she did that--

If you need anything for Braedon let me know.
Love you guys to pieces.

MOM

[Em]

Oh Breanna! I hope everything is OK with you guys, I bet that is really scary! Are your chicks OK? I hope the cat shows up sometime at your mom's house... they don't usually roam far, but this is a *different* situation. I'm so sorry you're having to be so stressed. I wish I could give you a hug! ((((Breanna)))) - that's the best I can do for now!

[Roxanne]

Oh my gosh Breanna! I would say that is pretty sucky indeed. Take care of yourself and your family and stay safe okay. I'll be thinking about you!!

[Vallen Queen]

Cats have been known to disappear when they don;t like what's going on at home. I bet yours will pop up, I hope so anyway. I'm so sorry for all the chaos you've had. Doesn't matter if there is some good in there - sit down and cry all you want. Not one thing wrong with that!
The email thing - I did get one from you but it has happened a few times now with other firends names. It is some really horrible mass marketer who should have his/its computer privilege's revoked.