My turn...

Northern California has been on fire for weeks now. The sunlight shining down through the smoky skies has shone orange daily And I live on the coast! I feel for all my friends and family inland that are dealing with temperatures over 100 degrees and much denser smoke. Some friends have been evacuated from their homes, but no losses have been had.

Last night was my first big scare with fire. I had enjoyed a leisurely Sunday of bike riding, thimble berry picking, and rock skipping on the Mad river with Squirrel Meat. Upon settling in for the night I noticed a small fire truck with flashing red lights speed up my road (a dead end road). Huh?... then another larger fire truck followed by a bulldozer. What is that? The sound of a helicopter, which upon looking up to the sky was carrying a water bucket.

A half mile up my road is timber property that is very dry. It was obvious that something major was going on. My roomies and I quickly got on the phone, as the helicopter continued passing back and forth, to get whatever information we could. We also opened a bottle of wine to calm ourselves down just a bit. We finally got a hold of a neighbor who was on his quad watching the action. It was a fire on the timber property and he was going to continue watching the progress and give us updates.

A few hours later we saw a fire truck leaving, then another. The sound of the helicopter just a memory. There was a calm in the air and we could now sleep.

(Photo shown is not from around these here parts)