I’m tired. Worn really. This has been a very trying fire season here.
Time has telescoped. I think it’s just about a month ago the wildfires began spontaneously across 1/2 a dozen Northern California counties one very windy night, most likely due to arcing power lines. Something like 5800 homes have been lost, 1/2 of them in the city of Santa Rosa where several whole neighborhoods have been vaporized. I know a bunch of people who’ve lost their homes; gratefully, I don’t personally know anyone who's died in the fires.
Here in Lake County the damage has been relatively minor in comparison to neighboring areas which have been devastated. Still, the Sulphur Bank Fire destroyed most of the homes on a peninsula jutting into the lake. We hosted an evacuated family we know from the other side of the lake, for the better part of a week when this all began. Thankfully firefighters were able to hold the blaze at the top of the ridge above their home.
I spent a week with the car packed and ready to go if we got the call to evacuate. As the risk has de-escalated I’ve unpacked the car, but have yet to unpack my bags which remain on the back patio for now, ready to toss back into the boot of the Prius, should push come to shove.
I’ve spent more hours than I can count clearing brush on my property and frankly am far from done. I have been able to create a more defensible space around the house itself, which has helped to bring down my stress a bit. (But sadly, only a bit)
I was clearing brush on Saturday, when my husband spotted smoke rising on our side of the lake, just two bays north of us. At a distance of about 4 miles, that is way too close. I was in the car within minutes, driving directly towards the smoke, to see for myself how bad it was & if it was time for us to get the hell out of here. I’m ashamed to admit I was relieved to see it was a house on fire and not the hill side. By the time I had scrambled up to the ridge a quarter-mile from the flames, there were already 4 fire battalions on scene, making short work of the fire that had made short work of the home. Nonetheless, my sleep on Saturday night was fitful, punctuated by repeated nightmares of running from fire. Waking up in a cold sweat is getting rather old.
It’s been almost a month since I was able to go to the gym. A fall into a trench we’d dug here on the property to replace the electrical service up to the barn, left me with one very swollen, bruised and abraded left leg; by the time it was healed enough for me to return to the gym, we were headlong into the fire season & there was simply no time for me to go. I had too much work here clearing brush. Yeah, clearing brush is work out, but not the one I get from running. Between the lack of gym time & non-restorative sleep secondary to hypervigilance paired with nightmares, I’m pretty certain my serotonin levels have tanked.
I cannot wait for the rainy season to begin.
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