It all started in May, with the big tornado that hit Northern Colorado. That one hit close to home (LITERALLY) and left me feeling helpless 800 miles away to know how to feel. Our tiny little town of Windsor was hit hard, roofs thrown off the houses of people less than 5 miles away. I was left here at work wondering what we would see the next time we went home to Colorado, and being concerned on what damage we might have. Luckily, things with our house were ok, and rebuilding, and renewing in that great city we call home happened quickly.
In July (I think it was July), I had an experience with my first earthquake. By California standards it was small, but enough to jolt me out of a safe reality. Very little damage occurred but it frayed my nerves for a day. To feel the power of the earth shaking under your feet really helps to you put in perspective how much power mother nature has over our world.
Then, towards of the end of summer it was the hurricanes in Texas. Over the summer at my brother's wedding, I met some great gals, now friends, who all hailed from Texas, around the Houston area. To know that they were potentially in the path of a strong moving storm (I also have family in a cousin living out there), and with knowing parts of the areas that were hit (after having travelled there a lot at my first job in my 20s), watching the destruction, water rising, and reports on tv and the internet, I was mesmerized by the sheer damage and trauma waters could cause.
Now, here in the Fall/Winter months in the Southlands, it is fire season. While it has both annoyed me and angered me it is November and 90 degrees (personally I am still having issues with it being shorts weather in mid November. My mind can't get out of long sleeve, sweater and pants this time of year. But what scares me more, these temps means yet another smack down from mother nature in the form of fires. As I sit and type this, there are at least 5 if not more fires raging here in Southern California. One, has actually made its way to being about 15-20 miles from us, in an area at some point, Doug and I considered looking at rental houses in.
Fire has always been a super paranoia of mine since I was a kid. While I knew it never could occur, when I made my bed as a kid, I always made sure to tuck in the sheets on the side closest to the heat register. Paranoid more than anything that those sheets would some how find their way into the register, heat up, and cause a fire in my bed. I am scared of lighting matches (yet entranced by the idea of candles and incense, though I rarely light either anymore with cats..too many possible "lighting tail on fire" possibilities.
So the idea of being near, or around places on fire makes me nervous. It also has captivated my attention these last few days as I read more info each day on the areas in evacuation patterns. I found myself checking the running websites today (even though I did not sign up for a race this weekend) to see if they would be cancelled due to poor air quality. And I watched today, getting out of the mall on our drive back home on the 210, as the smoke slowly circled around the mountains making them invisible, and how it danced around the sun, changing its hue around the time it set from a pale orange to a bright reddish pink.
So far, no one close to me, or friends of mine from work (that I know of) have been affected by any vengeance mother nature has hit us with this year (knock on wood). For now, I hold my hope that she lets up here in California, allowing the firefighters to come to the rescue of so many in evacuation zones, and pray that maybe she has unleashed all her wrath possible this year. An awesome early Christmas gift would be a safe, and relaxing winter break.
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