Wildfire

  October 9th was the next date of departure that we chose. A week after we had turned back on our first attempt. When we woke up that morning we heard about 14 wildfires that had started while we slept. We were in Apple Valley, in Southern California and planned to take the 101 scenic highway north along the coast. We ended up taking the 5 interstate freeway because the fires were either closing or had the potential to close parts of the 101. The first day things were wonderfully normal, and we stopped in San Luis Obispo for the night.
  October 10th we drove past many of the fires. I looked up the fires on the map as we drove through Sacramento. At one point there were seven fires on one side, and 8 on the other. The fires were not close enough to see, but there was enough smoke to block the sun. It was a cloudless day, but the sunshine disappeared. The sun was an orange circle in the afternoon sky. We spent the night in Medford, Oregon. The scenery was amazing starting at Shasta Lake in Northern California. It started the land of tall pine trees framing the sides of the roads. The last of the fires were just west of Medford. I wish I had done a screen shot of the map of fires.
  October 11th and it was up to 22 fires and 18 people have died with many not accounted for. The numbers keep rising, as of noon today it was up to 3,500 building destroyed.
Now it's October 15th and the latest info is that fires are still raging and death toll is at 40 with 5,700 buildings destroyed. I'm glad we are safely in Montesano, Washington.
  We used up all of our good luck when we changed our route and made it to Washington. We arrived and the job was postponed again. What is this chaos in the universe?? My only consolation is that we are enjoying being with family. And that the environment is amazing. It smells so good here. I started getting all these flashbacks to my childhood with all these forests around.
  Good luck, bad luck. Things happen and we assign them a value. Good or bad. This job is starting to feel like a hoax.  Ron has a fourth start date for his job. At first it was the last week of Sept and now it's the last week of October. Ye gads. Family is awesome. The weather has been good except that one bit of hail. Sunshine and hail. Pine trees and fall colors. Ron has a respiratory infection. It all mixes in  together like when Bob Ross and his afro stand in front of a canvas and he twirls colors on the palette. Yesterday I finally started getting a sore throat too. Yeesh. The good news is that we were both up at 4am, sharing a moment, watching the sun rise. Feeling yucky.
  Things could be better. They could be worse. So count your blessings and keep on keeping on. It gives Ron time to heal before the job starts, right? And maybe I can take him to the doctor tomorrow, instead of the hospital later in the week. Men. They need to take care of themselves when they don't feel good.

But the views inspire me in my journeys. Fall has come to Oregon and Washington. I am in awe.

I'm reading an article that says we shouldn't try to portray our idealized virtual self. It can be harmful to the ego of others. It can cause impractical comparisons to only one part of our lives. So in honor of the article, I will tell what I learned today. Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious comes in handy. I heard someone fart today, and they could have said that big long word. Or "excuse me".  But I actually loved the response I heard. They said: "oops". That's it. And I'm still laughing over it. I am having some slow days now that we have settled down for more than 24 hours. That's the funniest thing I've got. I guess you had to be there. No wait, I take it back. Bad timing for that expression. A simple "oops" and a re-direct to something else nearby that could be interesting. That's what I have to share about my imperfect life. Imperfection can still be beautiful!