Plans are up in the air

and we are waiting for them to fall together. We are still working out details for what we are going to be doing for the next month. We have a lot on the schedule, as some of you may have noticed from a prior post. While we are excited about moving forward with our planned move to northeastern Washington, it is not going to be a simple process. Certainly there will be disruptions of plans, and we are working on sorting out how to prioritize the items already on the calendar with the ones we just added.

Our realtor set a tentative close of escrow for August 6th, and we have scheduled movers to be packing and loading here on August 7th and 8th. That gives us just over a month to figure out exactly where we are landing when we arrive. It does help the movers if we can give them an address where we want our things unloaded.

We are planning on heading north Sunday morning to do some serious shopping for a place to buy or rent. Wednesday being a holiday will give us a day to breathe and think over what we have found. We hope to head south Friday with a clearer idea of where we will be living a month from now. I will do my best to update everyone here as we know more. I will be taking my laptop with me, and there are lots of hotspots where we are going.

Wherever I go, I will always be a California Girl. That is more about where I come from than where I go.

Fire on the mountain

I have been caught up in poetry of late, and I forget to share with you by prose as well. Most of my internet time the last few days has been following the Angora Fire which has devastated forests and homes just south of South Lake Tahoe, and threatens that resort and gambling community even as I type. It is a couple of hours driving time from here, so we are not personally threatened by the flames, but it hits near home nonetheless.

A fire burned near here Saturday, the Angora fire started Sunday. If it had been the other way around, the fire here would still be burning too, because we would have been a lower priority for the planes and helicopters which dropped water and fire retardant and put out the flames. I look at the pictures and I can see my house and forest in them. One of the chimneys looked just like ours. It could be here, but it is not. My heart goes out to the families who have lost their homes or are evacuated and do not know. I am forever grateful to the firefighters who sacrifice so much to protect us all. There but for the grace of God we go.

The other occupation of the week has been negotiations over an offer we received on our house which has been on the market for over a year. We received an offer which we countered with a few terms. Today we received the acceptance from our agent. The next month was going to be a busy one. Now it is going to be more so. We are still working on scheduling a visit to our selected destination to secure a place to move in to. We should be making the big move in early August.

Sunday evening thoughts

set aside a task
save it for another day
procrastination

antidisestab-
lishmentarianism
is too long for this

back to school sales now?
graduation was today
where is vacation?

a man holds a sign
we stop for twenty minutes
then we go again

short boy, tall trombone
can’t reach seventh position
practicing with Dad

go jump in a lake
take a swim in the river
the pool is no more

I have too much to
say in this little verse. I
need more syllables

hot water pouring
wakes me every morning
time for a new day

Too much excitement for one day

I thought the exciting part of the day today was sending my daughter to camp for a week. I took her to a friend’s house so her friend’s mother could drop them off. Shortly after we arrived, her Awana leader called from camp with a request that they bring 60 chairs from church with them, as camp seems to have a chair shortage. After locating someone with the church key and carrying the chairs down the stairs to the waiting truck (and several other changes of plans) the girls were off. I called to confirm that they were on their way, and later this evening received a call from the driver saying that all had arrived safely.

My son and I went to the park for a carnival put on by our church at the end of Vacation Bible School. A good time was had by all. We made a stop at Wal-Mart on the way home to make a few purchases.

On our way out, we discovered the most exciting part of the day was yet to come. I was chatting with a friend on the way out the door, when I noticed a wisp of cloud that was not as white as it should be. She suggested it was just blowing dust, as it was a very windy day. We took a few more steps out the door and saw a huge plume of smoke with visible flames crawling beneath it. I stopped at Safeway, sensing that if the fire was not threatening my house, then my arrival without groceries might be a bigger issue than encroaching flames.

Having allowed the local citizens sufficient time to show their true colors while I was in the store, I drove home. I was not intending to get in anybody’s way, I just took the road I always take. Maybe I had my camera phone pointing out the window as I drove, but I did not pull over to gawk like the rest of them. I did stop at an authorized park and ride lot, which was empty even though it had a good view. I also stopped at another parking lot on the way home which did not have a good view even though it had a dead deer and three vultures. (What kind of crass photographer do you think I am? I did not take a picture of them.) Upon arriving home, I listened to the radio while I put away my groceries, and for a while afterwards as well. The final count was 80 acres burned. A few outbuildings were lost, but no houses. There were helicopters, planes and lots of trucks and heavy equipment involved. It never came closer than 8 miles from my house, so we were not terribly worried. As always we were glad to hear that the fire was under control and they were releasing "resources."

One of these things is not like the others . . .

Yesterday, I was thinking about that old ditty from Sesame Street where they show the viewer a set of objects and sing a song about one of them not belonging with the others. Discrimination at an early age.I was sitting in the shade outside my car waiting for my son to walk down the hill from camp. It was hot, and even if I had air conditioning (which I do not) I would not feel the need to waste petroleum keeping myself cool like everyone else parked there, which is one difference (so I had moved myself to the shade of a tree.) Another is the teenage driver who you cannot see behind the glare, but the biggest visual difference seems to be that I left my SUV home. I guess all the other parents think something bigger than I drive is needed to transport kiddies up the dirt road and back down again and wherever else they go. I overheard a conversation in the parking lot about how someone just put $100 in a tank that was partly full and it still was not up to the top. Of course I can remember the days when I received change from a $10 bill when I filled the car I still drive, so I feel that the $20 to 30 that I spend today is a lot, but I guess I am getting off easy. I do not have the car payments they do either. After 15 years, it still runs, and I have had the pink slip in the safe deposit box for a long time.