Still stoned, but at least I'm not on fire
So! There's a big ol' fire less than two miles from my house.
The only actual forced evacuations that have happened are a few ranches that happened to be way up in the mountains closer to the fire. But we've been under an "evacuation warning" for the last couple days now and a state of emergency has been declared. The smoke is really, really bad... most of yesterday you couldn't see the sky at all from our house. Everything outside is sprinkled in a thin layer of ash. The smoke keeps short-circuiting important power thingies and at one point the fire ate through an important power line so our electricity has been pretty spotty. For the most part the fire has been prevented from jumping important roads and getting much closer to the houses, but it's still spreading into the mountains and it's only 10% contained. It's on some very steep terrain so for the most part they can only fight it from the air. It's burned through 5,000 acres according to the news.
Visual Apocalypse Level: 274 / 666
Actual Apocalypse Level: 001 / 666
I have a few days' worth of clothes, my external backup drive, my old camcorder tapes and a bag of sentimental items ready to stuff in my car in case we get for-realsies evacuated. Once already they've been loaded into the car, two nights ago when the smoke was really bad and the fire had crested the hills and was very visible. Rumor had it that police were knocking on doors in the neighborhood to start the evacuation, but either that was just a rumor or they didn't make it to our place. (With no landline phone, we don't get the reverse-911 calls and have to rely on text messages from friends when the power goes.)
But hey... the downtown fireworks show is apparently going ahead as planned. Yay?
I still haven't passed this (these?) stupid stone (stones?) and frankly I'm starting to wonder if that's even what it is. Usually at this point the stone's either passed or gotten stuck, and I don't think my pain level is consistent with "stuck." Most of the time it's a dull ache that's a sharp but tolerable pain when I move around, managed when necessary with Vicodin. But last weekend the real awful stabby want-to-die pains were in full effect. I'm going back to the doctor on Monday... we'll see what they have to say.
Apparently I need to give my workplace a week's advance notice before returning to work, so we're looking at at least a full month of missed paychecks. Yikes!
The only actual forced evacuations that have happened are a few ranches that happened to be way up in the mountains closer to the fire. But we've been under an "evacuation warning" for the last couple days now and a state of emergency has been declared. The smoke is really, really bad... most of yesterday you couldn't see the sky at all from our house. Everything outside is sprinkled in a thin layer of ash. The smoke keeps short-circuiting important power thingies and at one point the fire ate through an important power line so our electricity has been pretty spotty. For the most part the fire has been prevented from jumping important roads and getting much closer to the houses, but it's still spreading into the mountains and it's only 10% contained. It's on some very steep terrain so for the most part they can only fight it from the air. It's burned through 5,000 acres according to the news.
Visual Apocalypse Level: 274 / 666
Actual Apocalypse Level: 001 / 666
I have a few days' worth of clothes, my external backup drive, my old camcorder tapes and a bag of sentimental items ready to stuff in my car in case we get for-realsies evacuated. Once already they've been loaded into the car, two nights ago when the smoke was really bad and the fire had crested the hills and was very visible. Rumor had it that police were knocking on doors in the neighborhood to start the evacuation, but either that was just a rumor or they didn't make it to our place. (With no landline phone, we don't get the reverse-911 calls and have to rely on text messages from friends when the power goes.)
But hey... the downtown fireworks show is apparently going ahead as planned. Yay?
I still haven't passed this (these?) stupid stone (stones?) and frankly I'm starting to wonder if that's even what it is. Usually at this point the stone's either passed or gotten stuck, and I don't think my pain level is consistent with "stuck." Most of the time it's a dull ache that's a sharp but tolerable pain when I move around, managed when necessary with Vicodin. But last weekend the real awful stabby want-to-die pains were in full effect. I'm going back to the doctor on Monday... we'll see what they have to say.
Apparently I need to give my workplace a week's advance notice before returning to work, so we're looking at at least a full month of missed paychecks. Yikes!