Fires

We are under critical drought warning. Extremely dry, the same conditions that Florida had when their big fire started on the Georgia border last month.

Yesterday there were fires in hay fields very close to us. If the trees had caught fire yesterday, well, I wouldn't be using this computer. It was waaaaay too close for comfort. Our neighbor, Tree, called and told me to look out the window. Black smoke. A combine had caught on fire. Her husband is a fire fighter in town but was called up to help the volunteer force out here. Tree (her nickname; her given name is Trinicia) said he'd call back if we were to evacuate. I panicked and called John, blubbering to him. Then I got the boys to get everything they thought was precious and put that stuff in the van. I got out boxes of things from China...Luci lost her home once, I am not going to let her lose her homeland twice. My stack of boxes was 4 feet tall and the boys had the XBox and various games in the van. Now I know what they think is precious! :) JT said that next he was going to get his t-shirts and pants. At least one of us would have clothes. (Luci would have something, also; I got several of her outfits and some socks and shoes, too.)

At this point of Susan's panic, Bryan came in from the backyard and said the smoke was all white. What a relief. We got in the van and drove to see the damage. It was an awesome, awful sight. I looked the area up on the Google maps. They have taken new photos of our area in the last couple of months. Our house is now on the satellite photo and the area that burned got as close as about 2,000 feet as the crow flies. All together, the field was a meandering 1/2 mile of dry hay (now ash).

THEN...Today I looked out the back window and saw smoke again! This was south of us. I called 9-1-1 and the lady there said that the fire department was already there. I asked her if the trees had caught yet, should I start packing? She put me on hold and when she came back in a few seconds, she told me that she didn't know, but the guys were already working on the fire. JT and I hopped into the van and headed out to see just where this conflagration was. It was just a bit further from yesterday's, and it was heading south, away from our house.

This is just too scary. One time, when I was about 7 years old, we were on a vacation to visit the relatives in Tennessee. I remember Grandmother saying she was praying for rain. I thought that was a stupid thing to pray for, didn't she realize we were on vacation? Mom probably thought, "oh, no, there are FIVE children and two adults in this station wagon, it had better not rain!" But now I understand, and I am the silly grandmother praying for rain.