Friday, August 31, 2007

New Fire Pictures


Apparently the smoke clears out in the morning . . . it's getting bigger. It's already destroyed one cabin, and apparently 20 buildings are threatened. It's 30 miles away (so not as close as I thought) and 10000 acres. I couldn't actually get the entire width of the smoke plume in the photo. I just took it quickly through a window, so sorry for the quality. But . . . fucking scary. Still. More.

ETA: What a difference an hour and a half makes. Look at it now.

Chipmunker

Every once in a while I let Freckles roam around outside for a little break from the kittens. I let her have just such a mini-vacay this morning and when I let her back into the house she had a LIVE chipmunk in her mouth.

My neigbors had been planning to take one of the kittens to keep as an outside mouser, but now I'm wondering if I shouldn't let them have Freckles, who is obviously skilled (those chipmunks are fast), and keep one of the kittens myself.

There is a happy ending to this particular incident as I quickly pushed Freckles away from the chipmunk and let the tiny victim run. It didn't seem injured, just a bit moist. Freckles, however, is pissed.

Quick note on the new fire: the smoke cloud is gone, just a light haze over West Mountain.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Another Fire

Last time I posted about large scary columns of smoke my camera battery was dead so I had no photos to document the occasion. When my friend David came for a visit and saw the smoke for himself, he admitted that he'd thought, reading my post and hearing the panic when we'd talked that night, the night of the rental insurance, that I was . . . maybe being a little overly dramatic. Well, this morning we had another small thunderstorm. And this evening I see a new colum of smoke. This time to the west. And now my camera is working. It's kind of pretty isn't it? In a fucking scary sort of way.

Summer Wanes

Why is summer ending so soon!?!?! Due to a number of unforeseen events - kittens, a house-ful of relatives, lazyness, forest fires - this summer hasn't been exactly what I imagined a summer in the mountains would be. (OK, I should have anticipated the lazyness, but ... somehow I didn't.) I haven't really gone hiking, I haven't gone swimming in the river, the lake, or the reservoir, I didn't take up my cousin's offer to go rafting on the Salmon, I haven't put up a tent and slept with only that thin nylon between me and the stars. This is not to say it's been a bad summer, just that it's been one more summer of which I didn't take full advantage. Which is disappointing. It's been pretty hot the last couple of days, and today is supposed to be another warm one, so I hadn't really thought that summer was ending. Until I woke up this morning at 6:40 and it was still really dark. But it's now almost 8:30 and it's still pretty dark. I'm going to blame it on this big black cloud blocking the sun, and not the creeping fall that is already turning a tree in my yard red, and some of the aspens by the road yellow.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Kittens!

As I've mentioned before, the size of my household has increased rather dramatically in the past month. From two (me and Sugar) to 8 (me, Sugar, Freckles, and Freckles FIVE kittens). It took two weeks of frustrated searching before I found them . . . under the outhouse. Yes. Freckles decided that the safest most comfortable place to give birth was under a toilet. She's an interesting cat. She's also a fertile damn cat. Did I mention the FIVE kittens? (Available for adoption in late September/early October if anyone wants one! Free to good home!) Freckles and family are now safely housed in my childhood bedroom. I took them all to the vet the morning after I found them and apart from some eye infections that just won't clear up no matter how often I get myself scratched applying eye ointment to unwilling kitten eyeballs, everyone is very healthy. Of course they're adorable. Who doesn't love a kitten? But they're totally cramping my style. I'm dying to drive over to the Oregon coast for a few days of blackberry jam making and sitting on the beach, but . . . kittens can't be left alone that long. I know, you're all crying for me on the inside. Anyway, due to popular demand (or the half-hearted request of one friend) here are some blurry kitten action shots. Kitten photography is really hard y'all. For the second post in a row I have to say: don't judge.

STILL unpacking

I don't even want to think how long it's been since that wonderful day on which my stuff finally arrived . . . but I've done remarkably little unpacking since then. For a solid month I had the excuse of houseguests, but it's been a week and a half since they left and still . . . my living room, dining room and bedroom are still lined with half-unpacked boxes and boxes whose packing tape is still intact. But yesterday I made a HUGE stride and finally unpacked the enormous box housing my TV. A 15 year-old TV that I'd thought I'd left behind in DC. That I'd meant to leave behind in DC because it's huge and heavy and really unnecessary. But once the box came off the truck I vaguely remembered that the TV was so freaking big I couldn't move it down to the dumpster by myself and so had ended up having it boxed up and sent along. That's so lame of me. But so me. I don't want it, but it's easier to keep it, so keep it I do. Argh. Anway, here's a cute photo of Sugar playing (this morning) in the two tons of paper the movers used to protect my still working but essentially worthless albatross of a TV. Yes. I unpacked the TV and set it up yesterday afternoon and all the paper is still on my living room floor this morning. Don't judge. I've been busy . . . doing . . . stuff.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Remember this morning?

When I was all worried about being alone, and having time to think? Yeah, the first two hours of being alone have been nothing short of deliriously happy. As soon as my uncle pulled out of the driveway I was on the couch watching What Not to Wear. Then I put on my favorite pyjamas (it's not even 7 yet), gave myself a facial, and while my mask was activating practically danced around the living room while I vacuumed. I know, vacuuming doesn't sound like much of a treat. Well, trust me, it is when you've had sawdust encrusted carpets for four weeks. It felt very satisfying to vacuum and know that the floor would only accumulate that detritus that I bring in on my own two feet. Is that silly? And now I've got a full glass of cold sweet tea within reach, a cat in need of some cuddle time, a couch free of crumbs, and the second season of Weeds on my Tivo. My life is fanfreakingtastic.

(NB: I loved having my family here. I was thrilled to have my soon-to-be-lawyer friend staying with me. They can all come back any time they want. And I hope they come back soon. But . . . tonight I'm alone and I love it.)

Starting Over

I've spent the last few days with a good friend who's about to start law school. In fact, he should be preparing to be oriented right about now, reading his first cases, underlining issues and rules and holdings. Scribbling in margins and wondering why the hell legal writing has to be so . . . bad. He's my age, 30, and we're both starting over. And as happy as I am in the mountains, as much as I love the peace and the quiet, and the nothing I have to do all day but help my uncle put up siding and medicate the five kittens now living in my laundry room, and as much as I enjoy chatting with my neigbors about county politics, and reading mysteries and eating cinnamon rolls bought from the local bakery where they're starting to recognize me, I can't help but feel truly, deeply, greenly, envious of him.

Because he has a plan. And a purpose. For the next three years he'll have texts to read and outlines to write, exams to prepare for and take. He'll have syllabuses to follow and scheduled vacations. And at the end of it he'll have accomplished something. And as much as he may not know now where he'll want to go when those three years are up, for now, in the longish short term, he's on track. And I'm not. I'm adrift. And pretty soon, in a few hours, my month of constant houseguests will end and I'll have my house to myself. I'll be alone. It will be quiet. And maybe I'll start thinking about what I'm drifting toward. And whether it's time to pick a paddle, and a current. Maybe not. Maybe I'll be able to find enough distractions to keep me from thinking those scary, lonely thoughts. Maybe I'll play with the cats, and stack firewood, and finally (FINALLY) unpack, and I'll be able to keep enjoying the quiet and the nothing to do for awhile longer. But now, right this minute, I'm envious. Because he's starting, and really, despite the title of this post, I'm idling.

Saturday, August 4, 2007

I hate purple

I'm back from the family reunion, and even though the nearest forest fire (the North Fork) is now over 4,000 acres, we had a gloriously strong wind today that blew the smoke away. The wind is obviously not good for the fire, but it sure felt good for my lungs. I really promise to stop talking about the stupid fires soon, even I'm getting bored, but you've all seen those health advisory air quality warnings on your evening news right? I kind of always assumed "red" was the worst. WRONG. Apparently Maroon is as bad as it gets and we were at purple this week, which is described as "very unhealthy - everyone may experience more serious health effects."

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Offline

George and I have decided to head down to the valley (i.e. Boise) for the day. The air quality is just too damned awful to work in, and while the valley is smoky too, it has movie theaters and stores and lots of other places where the air is conditioned and filtered and doesn't make your throat sore. And then tomorrow I'm heading down to southern Idaho for a family reunion, so I'll be offline for a couple of days. I just wanted to make sure that no one mistook my silence, given the last few melodromatic posts, and thought I'd been burned out or anything.

More on the Fire

Sorry to keep harping on about this, but have I mentioned that there's a fucking forest fire (or two) trying to asphyxiate me? I got almost no sleep last night, and when I did sleep I dreampt of running and flames, and then the smell of smoke would wake me up and I'd lie there with my mind racing completely uselessly wondering if I should get up and start searching through my still mostly packed boxes for things I really couldn't bear to lose and wondering what the hell I was going to do about Freckles and her still hidden kittens if I really had to evacuate. And then it was early morning and I finally couldn't take it anymore, and I came downstairs, and I closed all the windows, and the smoke is still so bad it makes my eyes water and my throat feel like I've swallowed a rose stem smoothie. Speaking of smoke, because really, that's kind of all I can think about right now, remember when I complained a couple of days ago about not being able to see the mountains across the valley? HA! Now I can't even see the valley. And to the east, the ridgeline and those plumes of smoke that scared me last night? I can barely see the ridge anymore. And what am I doing about all this? Am I re-packing my family mementos? No. I'm blogging. And baking cookies. What the hell is wrong with me? I can't tell whether I'm being horribly melodromatic and completely ridiculous or totally in denial. Is it possible I'm being both?

Fucking forest fires.