Good morning AJ, et. al.
I just finished reading, praying and thinking abut you and others in my life. Some of which I haven’t seen for years. (I got a birthday card from a former colleague I haven’t seen for over thirty years now. I still remember and pray for him. Others I have lost contact with, but were important to me at the time. They are all old folks like me now.)
-Just saw something I need to comment on -politics thread.
I remember reading about Edith Schaeffer wondering what to tell someone who was in the hospital and had a terminal illness. One of the things she told the person was that they could still pray for others. There are stages in our lives and I find that even at my age there are things I can no longer do, but prayer is something I can do and it is so needed. I covet your prayers, Chas, and am sure so many others do as well.
I told all of you last night to remind me to tell you something today…
Three years ago when I came back to KW, part of what I was supposed to do was bring an expansion team to this office. On that team I had a “coach”. DJ, you met her in the house in Anaheim. One of my faults is that I can lead a person off topic or get them on a rabbit trail. It didn’t take me too long to find out that the “Coach” was an alcoholic and I could distract her. (Remember, as I like to say, I was trained by the best) Eventually, I parted ways with the team, but by that time had formed a friendship with Coach. Every now and again we would check in with each other.
Back in whatever was the first part of this year, I talked to her and she was having some tests run. She had gained weight and decided to join Weight Watchers but it wasn’t working, so she had gone to the doctor to see what was wrong. They ended up removing fluid from her abdomen or something. She kept having to go back and have fluid removed while they were running tests. Some days she could talk and some days she was too winded to talk.
Back in June I received a text from her apologizing to me. I called her and the tests weren’t good. She was really sick, but said she didn’t have a diagnosis.
Monday as I was headed home, I sent her a voice to text message that I was thinking of her and checking in. Later that afternoon she called. She has been in the hospital since last Monday. She is in liver failure and had pneumonia. She is now on a transplant list. We talked about her daughter and her husband and how they are handling everything and then I asked the question,
“How are YOU handling everything? Are you ready?” She told me she was. She really wasn’t.
Last night she called me again. She started the conversation by saying, “Your God is so good”. She was crying as we got through the conversation. Apparently, there was a minister visiting patients in the hospital and he popped into her room and started talking to her. You can see where this lead. Now, she IS ready. Also, they had been fighting the insurance company to pay for the liver transplant if and when it happens and since her husband had changed jobs they were claiming it was a pre-existing condition. That got somewhat settled yesterday. Her husband’s former company is searching for a way to put him back on their payroll to help out AND they are doing a fundraiser to help pay off her daughter’s student loans.
I always compare “microwave Christians” to “Slow cooker Christians”. She is obviously in the microwave category but I am happy for her and pray that all will work out. I did tell her about my aunt who had a liver transplant 3 years ago and how well that has worked out. I also told her my aunt had told me that she was near death several times, and now she isn’t afraid to die. She said dying doesn’t hurt. Maybe it was or wasn’t the right things to say but she appreciated it.
Good morning. Very nice thoughts opening up the blog today. I am getting ready for my Bible study group. I chose Proverbs 16:7 for my memory verse:
“When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” We are studying Daniel and in a commentary by Warren Wiersbe, he said that verse related to Daniel when he had to give bad news to the authorities. I think it is a good verse for these days.
Kim, et al
You don’t have time to think about it now. So much in life to take your attention.
But there will come a time when you will realize that there is nothing better in life than knowing that you will have some “Stars in (your) crown”.
Good morning. I am preparing to take a demensional analysis exam. Drug calculations etc. Day 3 of the semester. I did skill checkoffs yesterday on NG tubes and foley catheters.
Last night was uncomfortable, it was down to about 81 in my house earliy in the evening but then the temp actually went up to 85 or so by the time I went to bed (even after having several windows wide open) — only to toss and turn for a good while.
I’m hoping today will be easier (for work) than yesterday.
I may have finally lost my impatiens, will have to try clipping them way back to get rid of the heat-wilt. Poor things. They look like I feel.
Chas, I missed sending you a message on your birthday. So sorry. I did have the joy of reading all of the special messages posted on here. Kim, that sign was wonderful. That is a picture to treasure. Chas I was glad to see that your home now has a ramp, so no more steps for your sweetie.
We are all blessed to have you in our lives. I know you pray for us and we pray for you. The encouragement that you share on here helps us all. Thanks for being here for us even when you don’t feel very useful. God continues to use you to do His work.
Today is a birthday but I don’t know if she remembers or cares. Eighteen turns nineteen. Last year she was in the Kootenai mental hospital. The year before, she refused to have a birthday.
We’re home, still safe, and going about our business. West county is being evacuated, for the most part, from Highway 101 to the ocean. The news, as always, is unclear, some are suggesting Cal Fire is hampered in their ability to get bulldozers and/or fuel to the area–which is full of ravines. It’s where the redwood trees have survived for 2000 years, but we’re not particularly worried about them. People, homeless, few roads, it’s dangerous.
That fire is about 20 miles due west of us. FB friends would have seen the odd photo we took from the hill above our house. What wind we have is pushing the smoke south to San Francisco. In the photo, there’s a distinct line between the smoke and the marine layer.
The sky is blue above us.
To the east, about 12 miles, the Hennessey fire is growing but also bending south. Between us and the fire, based on maps we’ve found, we’ve got part of a lake, a wine-growing valley (where I believe Kizzie’s relatives live, and a high ridge. Now the smoke isn’t billowing up, we’re not too concerned about it. We have heard fire engines and sirens headed down Highway 12, about a mile south of us, toward the east. It’s all ridges, small mountains, and vineyards in that direction.
It’s supposed to be slightly cooler today–only 98 degrees instead of 104–our governor has suspended all the environmental regulations during this crisis, so people are allowed to run their generators. As a result, we may avoid rolling blackouts.
But if only if we’re good.
Lots of anger, angst, some despair and fear out here. As I indicated last night, the PTSD rages and even I had trouble sleeping.
Which means I’m nearly finished listening to sermons on 2 Samuel, now. 🙂
The rolling blackouts we’re having, BTW, were completely preventable if our state had not decided that renewable energy is the only way to go. Newsome has doubled down, insisting the issue is we don’t have enough electrical storage capacity and we need to put in batteries.
Get ready to dig, is the answer, which is also an ecological nightmare and the reason President Trump suggested buying Greenland–there are rare earth metals needed for battery production there. All the rare earth metals in Africa have been purchased by the Chinese.
While discussing this issue with our boarder, he got very excited, explaining to me that was the reason for Space-X. Musk wants to “lassoo” an asteroid and mine it for earth metals.
I listened to his enthusiasm with divided thoughts: 1. That’s impossible. 2. How wonderful he’s excited about a technological advancement. 3. Not likely in my lifetime. 4. Does he understand how complicated such an idea is?
I looked at Mr. Engineer, who smiled politely.
Yes, of course, that may be necessary and even possible someday. But in the meantime, we have the technology and the US is awash in enough natural gas to last 100 years. Maybe we should continue with that, while pursuing this idea, rather than shut it all down and announce solar and wind are the only ways to run mechanical devices in California today.
After all, as demonstrated on Monday, if clouds cover California, the wind doesn’t blow and then you have zero energy.
Cargo ships aren’t allowed to plug into shoreline power this week, one of the ports’ major environmental initiatives launched some 15 years ago. The order runs through Thursday. Until then (or maybe beyond if these conditions don’t let up) ships will go back to running on polluting fuel while in port.
Michelle – This comment is not meant to be snarky or facetious. But I really wonder why you folks stay in the areas of California that have those wildfires year after year. I can’t imagine living with that anxiety every fire season.
Yes, I have a couple cousins – transplants from New York – who live in Napa. My cousin Artie never married, but my cousin Tommy (whom I brought up on the prayer thread) has a wife and two children, as well as a pizza shop in St. Helena (called That Pizza Place).
Artie was the first one to move out there, over 40 years ago, when he got out of the Navy. He and his brothers and sister grew up poor with two alcoholic parents, and their father was abusive. (They each got sober eventually, but divorced before that happened.) I guess he wanted to get as far away from that as he could but still stay in the U.S.
Tommy followed him several years later, after going through a Salvation Army kind of rehab for drugs and alcohol abuse. He and his wife married in their 30s and had their kids later in their 30s, and have built a successful business with their pizza shop.
We have many metals in the ground where we live. It is a battle to get any kind of mining going these days. Companies must spend millions and millions of dollars over many, many years all while having the capital invested in the land and often in equipment, but no income from that. Some are going on decades and no mining as environmental groups sue over and over again. Our governor just shut down another project even though all the latest science said it is okay. IOW, after the companies jump through all the environmental hoops, they still are not allowed to mine. I have no problem with making sure the environment is considered, but we need a balance. Furthermore, the US refusal to allow the mining means that it is done in other countries with no or very little environmental safeguards. The protesters feel smug about saving the very environment they make worse for the entire earth.
Wesley does have a fracture and will go to a specialist for casting and possible MRI. As he previously said, it is near the elbow, near where muscle attaches. They were amazed he has been able to use his arm. A sling is giving him relief.
My Bible study/prayer group had another wonderful study.
Feeling a lot of concern for those in the area where Michelle lives. My former apartment roommate is in Mountain View, not far from San Francisco, closer to San Jose. I need to be in touch with her.
What a change! During the hour I got my hair cut, the world turned brown. Ash . . .
Yours is a legitimate question, Kizzie, and one we discuss fairly often. Several reasons we stay. 1. Our family is here. If our sons decided to move, we’d take off and go with them–assuming they went to the same place!
2. This is where God has us. There are problems everywhere. If Christians abandoned ship, who would be there to help bind up the wounds and set the captives (to sin) free?
3. Is this any worse than South Sudan?
Until He tells us to go, this is where we stay.
BUT, it is troubling.
Several friends are now evacuating–from north of us, headed south. Other friends closer to Napa are packing, though it’s just nerves, not any real need at the moment.
My husband, who is an energy manager, hasn’t heard anything about rolling blackouts today, so maybe the governor made a good call.
I don’t have TV. It sounds like most of the state ringing San Francisco is on fire–is that right?
Oh, and I’m going to eat the ice cream I just bought at the grocery store. It’s 94 and rising. I’m also going to turn on the air filter, because I apparently can!
The seller on the house I was going to buy is crazy. She doesn’t have representation. She doesn’t understand the contract and she doesn’t even understand what a contract is. I had an appointment with her at 4:30. She wanted me to come at 6;30 and I told her no. I couldn’t do it that late.
This little 🎣 just spit the hook.
Interesting event at school. One of the teachers asked if we could have a short prayer time before students come tomorrow. So about 20 of us gathered in the auditorium. the Principal led the prayer. It was a blessing.
I have ice cream. It’s been in my freezer for a while. I may have some.
Kizzie, NCIS is formally set to begin filming first week in sept., but everything’s a little tentative still as you might guess. Maybe the government will defund NCIS in 2020 and they’ll all be laid off. There’s a story line.
I guess they film mostly in LA, on sound stages, up in Santa Clarita, LA city and in our beach and waterfront/marina areas where they have a battleship they can also use. I didn’t realize they didn’t use the East Coast at least some (if not most) of the time.
I chopped back my impatiens, it seemed their only hope to survive. So we’ll see. I’ve managed to keep them thriving (mostly) for about 3 years now in their clay pot, want to eventually transplant them into a shady area in the backyard (but I keep putting that off).
It’s 91 in the house again. 5 p.m.
I turned in the ship plug-in story, followed by discussions w/editor on megawatts.
Sorry about the fires, Michelle. We have a smoke haze here. Not sure which fires to blame.
Granddaughter got quarantined and tested due to exposure by a coworker. We will be anxiously waiting for the results. That means april is in quarantine also.
Social distancing filming,
I’d guess they have some ways or tricks? Or maybe they’ll all be getting tested a lot and will become like a ‘household’ category in time?
Kizzie, I often wonder why people live where there is a hurricane season, or in ‘tornado alley’,in a flood plain, or along an earthquake fault…
We sometimes have tornado danger up here, and sometimes forest fire danger, and sometimes blizzards… but I sometimes think that natural disasters are, thankfully, quite rare here.
Good late night / early morning. Insomnia for this wanderer.
My mind keeps playing the emotions I experienced yesterday as I drove to 4th Arrow’s workplace to see if she made it to work. (That wasn’t my original reason for being out and about, but as you’ll see, getting to her workplace became my primary goal not far into my journey. She doesn’t answer her phone at work, and I don’t have her workplace number programmed into my phone or know it offhand.)
Anyway…this will be a long and perhaps meandering story of a mom who is deeply grateful to God for His loving protection yesterday on my daughters who live at home — 3rd, 4th, and 6th.
3rd Arrow was scheduled to finish work at 4:30 yesterday afternoon. 4th Arrow was to report to work at the same time.
6th Arrow was interested in seeing the sofa and chair I’ve been thinking of buying, so she and I headed out around 4:35 or 4:40, taking routes where we might meet 4th Arrow on her way home from work, if she left right at 4:30. (Fairly often, though, she works a while past the end of her shift, being the assistant store manager, and she often stops at the grocery store on her way home, so it wouldn’t have been surprising or alarming if we didn’t meet her on our way into town yesterday.)
I have mentioned previously that the highway past our dead-end road is partially closed due to construction with a bridge replacement. There are three other ways to get to town when our main highway is closed. The official route — I’ll call it Route 1 — which is the long way around on back roads we’re not very familiar with and which is extremely poorly marked as a detour, is a way we don’t take. An alternate route — Route 2 — which is the safest for driving into town, is the one we used to use until my husband had that creepy encounter with the angry man who lives along one of those roads.
So, at my husband’s direction, to avoid that guy, we all started using Route 3, which is good for coming home from town because all the turns are right turns, but is dangerous at one intersection on the way in to town, because of a stop sign at a busy 55mph highway onto which we must turn left to get to town.
We have cautioned the girls to look carefully and look again before proceeding onto that highway. Try to gauge the speed at which the vehicles are traveling from both directions. If in any doubt at all, stay at the stop sign on the county road until you know it’s safe to turn onto the state highway. Leave home in plenty of time so that if you have to sit at that stop sign a while, you won’t have to be worrying about getting to work on time. Etc.
So…back to 6th and me heading to town…
A few miles into Route 3 yesterday, I saw one set of flashing lights up ahead on the county road. From a distance, I figured it was a cop who pulled over a vehicle or something. As we got closer, I could see the squad car parked at a diagonal in the roadway, blocking both lanes. Officers were directing traffic, diverting us to the left if we were intending to head south to town or to the right for those wanting to go north to the next town. Straight ahead was the hill you head up, then down, to get to the stop sign at the state highway. I couldn’t see the highway from there, but knew there must have been an accident at that intersection.
The one 3rd Arrow might have been heading toward in the previous 15 minutes.
The one 4th Arrow would have been going through about 45 minutes prior.
After I got diverted onto a side road and told how to get to the highway, I pulled over and called 3rd Arrow, hoping I would reach her, and when to my relief she answered, I tried to keep a calm voice so as not to alarm 6th Arrow, my chronic worrier.
I told 3rd over the phone that if she was still in town, she should avoid taking Route 3 home because of what I suspected had been a vehicular accident.
She said she would go home Route 2 (and hope not to encounter the creep).
Then I proceeded along the route the officer had told me to take to get to the highway. When I got out to the stop sign at that part of the highway and looked to the right, I could see many flashing lights in the distance, where it looked to be right around the intersection I knew 4th Arrow would have been at less than an hour before.
I turned left onto the highway, heading away from the accident scene, much too far away for me to see any vehicles distinctly. I immediately started half praying, half pleading, silently, “Lord, don’t let it be [4th]; don’t let it be her.”
Like saying that would change reality. Whatever the reality was.
Whatever I was doing while driving — could that even be called a prayer? — God was with me. I am shaking as I type this, but my hands and body were steady as I drove. I glanced in the rear view mirror a few times, looking at 6th in the back seat. She was reading a book she’d brought along. She would have had no idea her sister would have been at that intersection earlier on her way to work.
I thanked God that this very bright, perceptive youngest child of mine was oblivious to that fact. She didn’t need to be worried, and I needed to hold everything together for her sake.
4th Arrow’s workplace is less than a mile from the furniture store. When we rolled into town — well, into the city that is just south of our town — I drove to daughter’s workplace first. There are several stores near the restaurant where she works, and they all share one big parking lot. I know where 4th normally parks her car. It’s at the end of the lot where not many people park.
As I drove around the perimeter of the lot, I kept looking for daughter’s car.
Couldn’t see it.
Drove further.
Still couldn’t see it.
Drove past the place it usually is, then looped back in the opposite direction.
Wait… is that black car parked up ahead hers?
A black Ford Fusion. Hope.
Is that her license plate number? She just got her car this year, and we have so many vehicles at home, I don’t know if her plate matches that.
I think it’s hers, and whisper a tentative prayer of some relief to God for the possibility…
I decide I’m going to go through the drive-up and order a smoothie. 6th doesn’t want anything. I place my order into a speaker, where I can’t see who’s on the other hand. The voice says back to me, “Oh hi, Mom.”
Relief!!! Oh my. How I didn’t lose it right then and there, I’ll never know. God does.
In the drive-up, I told 4th to avoid going home the way she went to work because, I explained, there had been an accident at the intersection I described and that things might still be blocked off when she’d be coming home. She said she already knew there had been an accident there. She had been diverted the same way I had been.
The accident, I learned after I got home, had happened close to an hour before 4th had left for work. A multi-car pileup in a chain reaction crash, going in the direction 3rd would have been heading home if she’d gotten off work one hour earlier than she did. The driver who started the crash swung into the oncoming lane and struck a semi tractor-trailer almost head on and was killed in the fiery wreck.
3rd Arrow had arrived home by the time 6th and I were done with our furniture store trip. Later in the evening, she told me about her experience driving home from work after I had called her. As I said before, she planned to take Route 2 home after I’d called and told her about the accident along Route 3. However, new signs and blockades were put up that made it look like Route 2 couldn’t be taken, either. So she decided to try going Route 1, which is familiar for only a small portion of the way. (This is the “official detour” that isn’t well-marked.)
3rd, guessing wrong about where she should go after the familiar part was past, ended up on dead-end roads multiple times and kept having to turn around and find her way back.
After I’m not sure how many wrong turns — 2? 3? — she started having a panic attack, not knowing where she was. This is my daughter who passes out easily when terrified.
She told me that she started to feel numb, like she could hardly feel the steering wheel. When her vision started going black — she’s fainted enough times to know what can come after that — she providentially got the presence of mind to pull to the side of the road and put her car in park.
She can’t remember if she shut off her car or not.
After she’d stopped, she didn’t pass out, but was panting rapidly for a while. She wasn’t sure how long it took for her to get her bearings — she estimated maybe five, ten minutes — but she got enough clarity of mind and release from the physical sensations she’d had earlier to find her way back to familiar territory.
At which time she discovered that the road for Route 2 wasn’t totally blocked off. The road blocks were only about halfway across the street, so one lane was open at the entrance for local traffic to use.
So she drove home that route anyway, and had no run-in with the hostile person along that route.
——————-
Contemplating all this, I thank God for how he protected us yesterday. I’m hugging my kids a little tighter today, and am offering up praises to our Lord for His almighty providence at such a tragic time for others.
Thanks, Chas. Yes, a happy ending. And don’t worry — I lost myself in there a few times. I kept wanting to write 4th Arrow when I meant 3rd Arrow, and did actually make that mistake a few times, but found most of them upon proofreading before posting.
It would have been easier for me if I’d used their actual names that I call them at home. 🙂
Wandering Views 
Good morning AJ, et. al.
I just finished reading, praying and thinking abut you and others in my life. Some of which I haven’t seen for years. (I got a birthday card from a former colleague I haven’t seen for over thirty years now. I still remember and pray for him. Others I have lost contact with, but were important to me at the time. They are all old folks like me now.)
-Just saw something I need to comment on -politics thread.
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I remember reading about Edith Schaeffer wondering what to tell someone who was in the hospital and had a terminal illness. One of the things she told the person was that they could still pray for others. There are stages in our lives and I find that even at my age there are things I can no longer do, but prayer is something I can do and it is so needed. I covet your prayers, Chas, and am sure so many others do as well.
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Morning! That is a cute little bird up there in sitting in a very lovely pine!
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I told all of you last night to remind me to tell you something today…
Three years ago when I came back to KW, part of what I was supposed to do was bring an expansion team to this office. On that team I had a “coach”. DJ, you met her in the house in Anaheim. One of my faults is that I can lead a person off topic or get them on a rabbit trail. It didn’t take me too long to find out that the “Coach” was an alcoholic and I could distract her. (Remember, as I like to say, I was trained by the best) Eventually, I parted ways with the team, but by that time had formed a friendship with Coach. Every now and again we would check in with each other.
Back in whatever was the first part of this year, I talked to her and she was having some tests run. She had gained weight and decided to join Weight Watchers but it wasn’t working, so she had gone to the doctor to see what was wrong. They ended up removing fluid from her abdomen or something. She kept having to go back and have fluid removed while they were running tests. Some days she could talk and some days she was too winded to talk.
Back in June I received a text from her apologizing to me. I called her and the tests weren’t good. She was really sick, but said she didn’t have a diagnosis.
Monday as I was headed home, I sent her a voice to text message that I was thinking of her and checking in. Later that afternoon she called. She has been in the hospital since last Monday. She is in liver failure and had pneumonia. She is now on a transplant list. We talked about her daughter and her husband and how they are handling everything and then I asked the question,
“How are YOU handling everything? Are you ready?” She told me she was. She really wasn’t.
Last night she called me again. She started the conversation by saying, “Your God is so good”. She was crying as we got through the conversation. Apparently, there was a minister visiting patients in the hospital and he popped into her room and started talking to her. You can see where this lead. Now, she IS ready. Also, they had been fighting the insurance company to pay for the liver transplant if and when it happens and since her husband had changed jobs they were claiming it was a pre-existing condition. That got somewhat settled yesterday. Her husband’s former company is searching for a way to put him back on their payroll to help out AND they are doing a fundraiser to help pay off her daughter’s student loans.
I always compare “microwave Christians” to “Slow cooker Christians”. She is obviously in the microwave category but I am happy for her and pray that all will work out. I did tell her about my aunt who had a liver transplant 3 years ago and how well that has worked out. I also told her my aunt had told me that she was near death several times, and now she isn’t afraid to die. She said dying doesn’t hurt. Maybe it was or wasn’t the right things to say but she appreciated it.
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Good morning. Very nice thoughts opening up the blog today. I am getting ready for my Bible study group. I chose Proverbs 16:7 for my memory verse:
“When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” We are studying Daniel and in a commentary by Warren Wiersbe, he said that verse related to Daniel when he had to give bad news to the authorities. I think it is a good verse for these days.
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The news informs us that Georgia is tops with Covid cases now. I have stopped looking at numbers.
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Good news Kim.
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Thankful for the good report Kim. We shall be keeping her in prayer as well…He is so so good!
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Kim, et al
You don’t have time to think about it now. So much in life to take your attention.
But there will come a time when you will realize that there is nothing better in life than knowing that you will have some “Stars in (your) crown”.
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Good morning all, praising with you!
Quite the thunderstorm last night. Spectacular and right on top of the house for nearly two hours.
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Good morning. I am preparing to take a demensional analysis exam. Drug calculations etc. Day 3 of the semester. I did skill checkoffs yesterday on NG tubes and foley catheters.
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RK. I have no idea what you’re talking about.
But I’m praying that you will do well.
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Life goes on.
So does our heat wave.
Last night was uncomfortable, it was down to about 81 in my house earliy in the evening but then the temp actually went up to 85 or so by the time I went to bed (even after having several windows wide open) — only to toss and turn for a good while.
I’m hoping today will be easier (for work) than yesterday.
I may have finally lost my impatiens, will have to try clipping them way back to get rid of the heat-wilt. Poor things. They look like I feel.
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Michelle, check in.
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I am back from the coast. It will be another hot day with plenty of smoke here. I will have to see if there is any way that I can help my family.
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Chas, I missed sending you a message on your birthday. So sorry. I did have the joy of reading all of the special messages posted on here. Kim, that sign was wonderful. That is a picture to treasure. Chas I was glad to see that your home now has a ramp, so no more steps for your sweetie.
We are all blessed to have you in our lives. I know you pray for us and we pray for you. The encouragement that you share on here helps us all. Thanks for being here for us even when you don’t feel very useful. God continues to use you to do His work.
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Today is a birthday but I don’t know if she remembers or cares. Eighteen turns nineteen. Last year she was in the Kootenai mental hospital. The year before, she refused to have a birthday.
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Saturday is also a birthday, twelve turns thirteen and we are done with preteens.
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We’re home, still safe, and going about our business. West county is being evacuated, for the most part, from Highway 101 to the ocean. The news, as always, is unclear, some are suggesting Cal Fire is hampered in their ability to get bulldozers and/or fuel to the area–which is full of ravines. It’s where the redwood trees have survived for 2000 years, but we’re not particularly worried about them. People, homeless, few roads, it’s dangerous.
That fire is about 20 miles due west of us. FB friends would have seen the odd photo we took from the hill above our house. What wind we have is pushing the smoke south to San Francisco. In the photo, there’s a distinct line between the smoke and the marine layer.
The sky is blue above us.
To the east, about 12 miles, the Hennessey fire is growing but also bending south. Between us and the fire, based on maps we’ve found, we’ve got part of a lake, a wine-growing valley (where I believe Kizzie’s relatives live, and a high ridge. Now the smoke isn’t billowing up, we’re not too concerned about it. We have heard fire engines and sirens headed down Highway 12, about a mile south of us, toward the east. It’s all ridges, small mountains, and vineyards in that direction.
It’s supposed to be slightly cooler today–only 98 degrees instead of 104–our governor has suspended all the environmental regulations during this crisis, so people are allowed to run their generators. As a result, we may avoid rolling blackouts.
But if only if we’re good.
Lots of anger, angst, some despair and fear out here. As I indicated last night, the PTSD rages and even I had trouble sleeping.
Which means I’m nearly finished listening to sermons on 2 Samuel, now. 🙂
Have we had 10 plagues yet?
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The rolling blackouts we’re having, BTW, were completely preventable if our state had not decided that renewable energy is the only way to go. Newsome has doubled down, insisting the issue is we don’t have enough electrical storage capacity and we need to put in batteries.
Get ready to dig, is the answer, which is also an ecological nightmare and the reason President Trump suggested buying Greenland–there are rare earth metals needed for battery production there. All the rare earth metals in Africa have been purchased by the Chinese.
While discussing this issue with our boarder, he got very excited, explaining to me that was the reason for Space-X. Musk wants to “lassoo” an asteroid and mine it for earth metals.
I listened to his enthusiasm with divided thoughts: 1. That’s impossible. 2. How wonderful he’s excited about a technological advancement. 3. Not likely in my lifetime. 4. Does he understand how complicated such an idea is?
I looked at Mr. Engineer, who smiled politely.
Yes, of course, that may be necessary and even possible someday. But in the meantime, we have the technology and the US is awash in enough natural gas to last 100 years. Maybe we should continue with that, while pursuing this idea, rather than shut it all down and announce solar and wind are the only ways to run mechanical devices in California today.
After all, as demonstrated on Monday, if clouds cover California, the wind doesn’t blow and then you have zero energy.
But then, I believe 2+2= 4. 😦
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Cargo ships aren’t allowed to plug into shoreline power this week, one of the ports’ major environmental initiatives launched some 15 years ago. The order runs through Thursday. Until then (or maybe beyond if these conditions don’t let up) ships will go back to running on polluting fuel while in port.
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Yep. That was part of it.
Cal Fire is talking now. They’ve requested 375 fire trucks from out of state. 3K lightning strike fires in the last few days.
“Challenging all aspects of emergency response.”
Stats:
6754 fires
300K acres burned so far.
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Here is the reminder of the “hi-lo” get out NOW siren. Tears.
I’m going out to run errands and get my hair cut. The car has air conditioning.
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We need more hamsters on wheels
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Michelle – This comment is not meant to be snarky or facetious. But I really wonder why you folks stay in the areas of California that have those wildfires year after year. I can’t imagine living with that anxiety every fire season.
Yes, I have a couple cousins – transplants from New York – who live in Napa. My cousin Artie never married, but my cousin Tommy (whom I brought up on the prayer thread) has a wife and two children, as well as a pizza shop in St. Helena (called That Pizza Place).
Artie was the first one to move out there, over 40 years ago, when he got out of the Navy. He and his brothers and sister grew up poor with two alcoholic parents, and their father was abusive. (They each got sober eventually, but divorced before that happened.) I guess he wanted to get as far away from that as he could but still stay in the U.S.
Tommy followed him several years later, after going through a Salvation Army kind of rehab for drugs and alcohol abuse. He and his wife married in their 30s and had their kids later in their 30s, and have built a successful business with their pizza shop.
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We have many metals in the ground where we live. It is a battle to get any kind of mining going these days. Companies must spend millions and millions of dollars over many, many years all while having the capital invested in the land and often in equipment, but no income from that. Some are going on decades and no mining as environmental groups sue over and over again. Our governor just shut down another project even though all the latest science said it is okay. IOW, after the companies jump through all the environmental hoops, they still are not allowed to mine. I have no problem with making sure the environment is considered, but we need a balance. Furthermore, the US refusal to allow the mining means that it is done in other countries with no or very little environmental safeguards. The protesters feel smug about saving the very environment they make worse for the entire earth.
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Wesley does have a fracture and will go to a specialist for casting and possible MRI. As he previously said, it is near the elbow, near where muscle attaches. They were amazed he has been able to use his arm. A sling is giving him relief.
My Bible study/prayer group had another wonderful study.
Feeling a lot of concern for those in the area where Michelle lives. My former apartment roommate is in Mountain View, not far from San Francisco, closer to San Jose. I need to be in touch with her.
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Praying for Wesley….and thankful he was able to finally get in to have it looked at by the doctor!
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What a change! During the hour I got my hair cut, the world turned brown. Ash . . .
Yours is a legitimate question, Kizzie, and one we discuss fairly often. Several reasons we stay. 1. Our family is here. If our sons decided to move, we’d take off and go with them–assuming they went to the same place!
2. This is where God has us. There are problems everywhere. If Christians abandoned ship, who would be there to help bind up the wounds and set the captives (to sin) free?
3. Is this any worse than South Sudan?
Until He tells us to go, this is where we stay.
BUT, it is troubling.
Several friends are now evacuating–from north of us, headed south. Other friends closer to Napa are packing, though it’s just nerves, not any real need at the moment.
My husband, who is an energy manager, hasn’t heard anything about rolling blackouts today, so maybe the governor made a good call.
I don’t have TV. It sounds like most of the state ringing San Francisco is on fire–is that right?
No comment.
Thanks for prayers.
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Oh, and I’m going to eat the ice cream I just bought at the grocery store. It’s 94 and rising. I’m also going to turn on the air filter, because I apparently can!
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The seller on the house I was going to buy is crazy. She doesn’t have representation. She doesn’t understand the contract and she doesn’t even understand what a contract is. I had an appointment with her at 4:30. She wanted me to come at 6;30 and I told her no. I couldn’t do it that late.
This little 🎣 just spit the hook.
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Here is something on Covid that those in the medical field may find of interest.
https://apnews.com/586d95c9d56afa220a7905cc00b63b0b
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Interesting event at school. One of the teachers asked if we could have a short prayer time before students come tomorrow. So about 20 of us gathered in the auditorium. the Principal led the prayer. It was a blessing.
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Oh, someone would sue in our state
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I have ice cream. It’s been in my freezer for a while. I may have some.
Kizzie, NCIS is formally set to begin filming first week in sept., but everything’s a little tentative still as you might guess. Maybe the government will defund NCIS in 2020 and they’ll all be laid off. There’s a story line.
I guess they film mostly in LA, on sound stages, up in Santa Clarita, LA city and in our beach and waterfront/marina areas where they have a battleship they can also use. I didn’t realize they didn’t use the East Coast at least some (if not most) of the time.
I chopped back my impatiens, it seemed their only hope to survive. So we’ll see. I’ve managed to keep them thriving (mostly) for about 3 years now in their clay pot, want to eventually transplant them into a shady area in the backyard (but I keep putting that off).
It’s 91 in the house again. 5 p.m.
I turned in the ship plug-in story, followed by discussions w/editor on megawatts.
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Glad (and good thing) Wesley got that armed checked out. Amazing it didn’t bother him more.
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DJ – Do you think they will be social distancing from each other while filming? The logistics of filming while obeying all the rules must be daunting.
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Interesting article, Kizzie.
Sorry about the fires, Michelle. We have a smoke haze here. Not sure which fires to blame.
Granddaughter got quarantined and tested due to exposure by a coworker. We will be anxiously waiting for the results. That means april is in quarantine also.
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RK – I think you may be referring to the article Janice shared? 🙂
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Social distancing filming,
I’d guess they have some ways or tricks? Or maybe they’ll all be getting tested a lot and will become like a ‘household’ category in time?
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They probably all work from home.
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Kizzie, I often wonder why people live where there is a hurricane season, or in ‘tornado alley’,in a flood plain, or along an earthquake fault…
We sometimes have tornado danger up here, and sometimes forest fire danger, and sometimes blizzards… but I sometimes think that natural disasters are, thankfully, quite rare here.
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Mumsee, entirely possible, they can just patch it all together via technology.
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Good late night / early morning. Insomnia for this wanderer.
My mind keeps playing the emotions I experienced yesterday as I drove to 4th Arrow’s workplace to see if she made it to work. (That wasn’t my original reason for being out and about, but as you’ll see, getting to her workplace became my primary goal not far into my journey. She doesn’t answer her phone at work, and I don’t have her workplace number programmed into my phone or know it offhand.)
Anyway…this will be a long and perhaps meandering story of a mom who is deeply grateful to God for His loving protection yesterday on my daughters who live at home — 3rd, 4th, and 6th.
3rd Arrow was scheduled to finish work at 4:30 yesterday afternoon. 4th Arrow was to report to work at the same time.
6th Arrow was interested in seeing the sofa and chair I’ve been thinking of buying, so she and I headed out around 4:35 or 4:40, taking routes where we might meet 4th Arrow on her way home from work, if she left right at 4:30. (Fairly often, though, she works a while past the end of her shift, being the assistant store manager, and she often stops at the grocery store on her way home, so it wouldn’t have been surprising or alarming if we didn’t meet her on our way into town yesterday.)
I have mentioned previously that the highway past our dead-end road is partially closed due to construction with a bridge replacement. There are three other ways to get to town when our main highway is closed. The official route — I’ll call it Route 1 — which is the long way around on back roads we’re not very familiar with and which is extremely poorly marked as a detour, is a way we don’t take. An alternate route — Route 2 — which is the safest for driving into town, is the one we used to use until my husband had that creepy encounter with the angry man who lives along one of those roads.
So, at my husband’s direction, to avoid that guy, we all started using Route 3, which is good for coming home from town because all the turns are right turns, but is dangerous at one intersection on the way in to town, because of a stop sign at a busy 55mph highway onto which we must turn left to get to town.
We have cautioned the girls to look carefully and look again before proceeding onto that highway. Try to gauge the speed at which the vehicles are traveling from both directions. If in any doubt at all, stay at the stop sign on the county road until you know it’s safe to turn onto the state highway. Leave home in plenty of time so that if you have to sit at that stop sign a while, you won’t have to be worrying about getting to work on time. Etc.
So…back to 6th and me heading to town…
A few miles into Route 3 yesterday, I saw one set of flashing lights up ahead on the county road. From a distance, I figured it was a cop who pulled over a vehicle or something. As we got closer, I could see the squad car parked at a diagonal in the roadway, blocking both lanes. Officers were directing traffic, diverting us to the left if we were intending to head south to town or to the right for those wanting to go north to the next town. Straight ahead was the hill you head up, then down, to get to the stop sign at the state highway. I couldn’t see the highway from there, but knew there must have been an accident at that intersection.
The one 3rd Arrow might have been heading toward in the previous 15 minutes.
The one 4th Arrow would have been going through about 45 minutes prior.
After I got diverted onto a side road and told how to get to the highway, I pulled over and called 3rd Arrow, hoping I would reach her, and when to my relief she answered, I tried to keep a calm voice so as not to alarm 6th Arrow, my chronic worrier.
I told 3rd over the phone that if she was still in town, she should avoid taking Route 3 home because of what I suspected had been a vehicular accident.
She said she would go home Route 2 (and hope not to encounter the creep).
Then I proceeded along the route the officer had told me to take to get to the highway. When I got out to the stop sign at that part of the highway and looked to the right, I could see many flashing lights in the distance, where it looked to be right around the intersection I knew 4th Arrow would have been at less than an hour before.
I turned left onto the highway, heading away from the accident scene, much too far away for me to see any vehicles distinctly. I immediately started half praying, half pleading, silently, “Lord, don’t let it be [4th]; don’t let it be her.”
Like saying that would change reality. Whatever the reality was.
Whatever I was doing while driving — could that even be called a prayer? — God was with me. I am shaking as I type this, but my hands and body were steady as I drove. I glanced in the rear view mirror a few times, looking at 6th in the back seat. She was reading a book she’d brought along. She would have had no idea her sister would have been at that intersection earlier on her way to work.
I thanked God that this very bright, perceptive youngest child of mine was oblivious to that fact. She didn’t need to be worried, and I needed to hold everything together for her sake.
God gave me the strength to do so.
To be continued…
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Oops, 5th paragraph should say, “taking routes where we might meet 3rd Arrow on her way home from work, if she left right at 4:30.”
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4th Arrow’s workplace is less than a mile from the furniture store. When we rolled into town — well, into the city that is just south of our town — I drove to daughter’s workplace first. There are several stores near the restaurant where she works, and they all share one big parking lot. I know where 4th normally parks her car. It’s at the end of the lot where not many people park.
As I drove around the perimeter of the lot, I kept looking for daughter’s car.
Couldn’t see it.
Drove further.
Still couldn’t see it.
Drove past the place it usually is, then looped back in the opposite direction.
Wait… is that black car parked up ahead hers?
A black Ford Fusion. Hope.
Is that her license plate number? She just got her car this year, and we have so many vehicles at home, I don’t know if her plate matches that.
I think it’s hers, and whisper a tentative prayer of some relief to God for the possibility…
I decide I’m going to go through the drive-up and order a smoothie. 6th doesn’t want anything. I place my order into a speaker, where I can’t see who’s on the other hand. The voice says back to me, “Oh hi, Mom.”
Relief!!! Oh my. How I didn’t lose it right then and there, I’ll never know. God does.
End Part 2. This isn’t the end of the story…
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Conclusion…
In the drive-up, I told 4th to avoid going home the way she went to work because, I explained, there had been an accident at the intersection I described and that things might still be blocked off when she’d be coming home. She said she already knew there had been an accident there. She had been diverted the same way I had been.
The accident, I learned after I got home, had happened close to an hour before 4th had left for work. A multi-car pileup in a chain reaction crash, going in the direction 3rd would have been heading home if she’d gotten off work one hour earlier than she did. The driver who started the crash swung into the oncoming lane and struck a semi tractor-trailer almost head on and was killed in the fiery wreck.
3rd Arrow had arrived home by the time 6th and I were done with our furniture store trip. Later in the evening, she told me about her experience driving home from work after I had called her. As I said before, she planned to take Route 2 home after I’d called and told her about the accident along Route 3. However, new signs and blockades were put up that made it look like Route 2 couldn’t be taken, either. So she decided to try going Route 1, which is familiar for only a small portion of the way. (This is the “official detour” that isn’t well-marked.)
3rd, guessing wrong about where she should go after the familiar part was past, ended up on dead-end roads multiple times and kept having to turn around and find her way back.
After I’m not sure how many wrong turns — 2? 3? — she started having a panic attack, not knowing where she was. This is my daughter who passes out easily when terrified.
She told me that she started to feel numb, like she could hardly feel the steering wheel. When her vision started going black — she’s fainted enough times to know what can come after that — she providentially got the presence of mind to pull to the side of the road and put her car in park.
She can’t remember if she shut off her car or not.
After she’d stopped, she didn’t pass out, but was panting rapidly for a while. She wasn’t sure how long it took for her to get her bearings — she estimated maybe five, ten minutes — but she got enough clarity of mind and release from the physical sensations she’d had earlier to find her way back to familiar territory.
At which time she discovered that the road for Route 2 wasn’t totally blocked off. The road blocks were only about halfway across the street, so one lane was open at the entrance for local traffic to use.
So she drove home that route anyway, and had no run-in with the hostile person along that route.
——————-
Contemplating all this, I thank God for how he protected us yesterday. I’m hugging my kids a little tighter today, and am offering up praises to our Lord for His almighty providence at such a tragic time for others.
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Six. You lost me somewhere long ago. But I see a happy ending. And that’s what counts.
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Thanks, Chas. Yes, a happy ending. And don’t worry — I lost myself in there a few times. I kept wanting to write 4th Arrow when I meant 3rd Arrow, and did actually make that mistake a few times, but found most of them upon proofreading before posting.
It would have been easier for me if I’d used their actual names that I call them at home. 🙂
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