Showing posts with label Fires. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fires. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Yes, We Made it to Sacramento Area

 
Indy with her new Hair Cut

We arrived safely Thursday Evening at my Sister Sandy and husband Arny's backyard...a place we have found ourselves each year for a number of month since 2012.  All three of our dogs LOVE their backyard, and LOVE both of them too.  When we arrived, Indy squealed and squealed.  This is our first RV in which we did not need to have ramps since our first Class A which we could pump up the air suspension to get over the steepness of the driveway.  We did scratch with the luggage carrier, but very little, and it didn't even leave a mark.  Hooked up electricity, and we were set up for the night.  We only hook up the electricity because many days we will be leaving the backyard, going to visit mom, shop, do laundry, visit my precious Granddaughter...so using water stored in the fresh water tank makes coming and going easier.  Also, while out, we can empty our grey and black water holding tanks, which is easier than filling the blue tote and walking it over to the other side of the house to get rid of the holding tanks contents.


We have visited a number of times, and tomorrow Sandy takes her to a hearing aid appointment and then the four of us will have lunch.  Visiting her reminds me of when her mother was in the same environment, yet a larger facility, way back in the late 70's, early 80's.  I would visit Grandma and she would always say, "Now which one are you?"  Heck, she had 11 children, and 50+ grandchildren, so what do you expect???  Mom gets confused in that she thinks Sandy is her sister Mary...she has called me by my dad's name many times, but once you point out who you are, she remembers...some day that may not be the case.

The fires in California are a good distance away from us.  We do smell smoke in the air, but the air does not show any heavy smoke look.  We do hear Cal Fire planes going north, but most of the planes hitting the big fire are working out of Redding, which is closer to the active fire areas.  That fire, called the Park Fire, is nearly 400,000 acres and 90 miles north of us.  It was started by a guy who pushed his automobile/truck down into a gully while it was on fire.  He hung around to watch the fire spread, and others who saw him do it told the authorities, and he was arrested on site.  A new fire southeast of us called the Pedro Fire is 130 miles from us and is already 4,000 acres in size.  It is not burning as quickly as the Park Fire, but we are now coming back into a hot cycle, with temps hitting 100 again starting tomorrow.  Oh, how fun...

Saturday we have a date to see my granddaughter...now that will be fun...


Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Fires, Cancer, Plan #2

Citrus Heights, CA – Sister’s House

SantaRosaFire

There are SO MANY pictures of the fires in Napa, Santa Rosa, and down in LA…but this one is the most dramatic.  This is the Coffey Park neighborhood in Santa Rosa, with the top picture from Google Earth, and the bottom picture taken after the fire went blazing through on Sunday/Monday.  (click on it and it gets bigger)  The fires came so quick, with such fury…listening to the stories of people telling how they got out in the nick of time…how neighbors woke them up and they had 2 minutes to grab things…and then there is the story about Sara and Charles Rippey.  Charles was 100, Sara 98…they met in Elementary School 90 years ago.  They did not get out of their house, and though they slept in separate rooms, Charles tried to get to Sara’s room before the fire consumed their house and them.  Their son was content that they at least died together, he knew they would have liked that, though probably not from smoke and fire.

Latest severe fire danger mapMuch of Northern California is under a fire watch or extreme fire watch…including the Yosemite area.  This has changed our plans completely…though we are not yet sure what plan #2 is going to be yet, but I do have some ideas.  We are in no hurry…would sure like to have some rain come and soak the state again, but there is none in the foreseeable future, though the winter is suppose to have normal precipitation from what I have read. As we come up with plan #2, we will let you know.



(Left to Right) Florence, Marci, Mom

Above is a picture of mom (right) visiting with Marcia and my Aunt Florence (dad’s brother’s wife.)  Well, mom was diagnosed with Lymphoma back in 1998 (give or take a year).  Two doctors told her that some day, it would be back.  Here we are about 20 years later…and it was time for extensive tests again.  I took her last week for blood tests, doctor’s appointment, and then a CT Scan.  The GOOD news came on Monday…the CT Scan shows no abnormities, and the blood tests are fine outside of her high sugar readings due to her diabetes.  (Perhaps I should put her on Skruffy’s diet!)  Now with that behind us…time to formulate plan 2….