Captain's Log #42 - 2019 Fire

Fire, I hope this isn’t going to be a recurring theme… Last Saturday around 5pm the local utility turned off the electricity to thousands of homes and businesses. For us, they turned it back on Thursday at 2:30pm. Five days without electricity. It wasn’t too much of a hardship, we still had running water, unlike people with wells who need power to run their pumps, and we had natural gas so we had hot showers and hot food. Strange how often I turn to the microwave, and the light switches in the dark. I had my little battery-powered lantern and carried it everywhere with me like Little Red Riding Hood’s basket. We have our battery & solar powered emergency radio, and solar powered battery-pack for charging cell phones. Fortunately, we still had cell phone coverage - our emergency communication device (as long as the cell towers have power) - my only tether to the outside world. We received our best news from one or two Facebook groups that offered links to emergency and informational sites, for example, Windy.com where we could see that our wind was coming from the plains of central Canada. It’s calming to watch the wind patterns swoop around the planet, sort of. Without the phone or radio, we would have done what we did in ’17, wait for the Sherriff to drive through the neighborhood and bull-horn us, Get Out! Now! This year I had a full tank of gas, unlike before. This year we didn’t evacuate, the fire was 20 miles away, although we were welcome at Kevin’s sister’s in Napa. That reminds me, I have to pull the camping gear and sleeping bag out of the trunk. Next time I’ll figure out some traveling food. We had water, and the cat would have had food but I had only a handful of food bars.

Speaking of food, World Central Kitchen is a large NGO of professional chefs who swoop to emergencies, internationally and at least two locations in California this past week, in order to feed responders and evacuees. They’ve served millions of meals to people in need with things like Roasted Local Pumpkin Curry, Teriyaki Fried Rice, Upside Down Shepherd’s Pie. I learned they were serving Thai Chicken Curry to the 1,000 people at our local fairgrounds. It was tempting to drive over just for a meal (but I hate crowds, although there’s probably some interesting stories there…) Emergency response is Big Business and probably a growing industry. There were 5,000 firefighters here! That’s a lot of porta potties. And water and food – at least 3 meals a day. The logistics, the coordination… the mind boggles!

Unlike ’17 there was a lot of early notification and this year the electric company turned off the power ahead of the wind. I think they did an excellent job notifying people in advance. Our fire in ’17, the one that stopped a mile from our house, was caused by an electric line just a few miles away in Nunes Canyon. Please turn my power off! A little inconvenience beats a fire any day!

The worst part was the wind on Saturday night and all day Sunday. Hurricane force winds on the ridgetops and, as Kevin calls them, “wind bombs” down here on the valley floor, gusts that would slam into the house, split and meet smashing into each other in the backyard. Very unnerving, PTSD inducing. I called in ½ day sick on Monday because I needed some respite from the stress. Monday was calm.

I think we’re getting this down: the weather services in predicting wind events, the electric company switching power off and on, businesses getting generators, and I hope insurance for spoiled food, residents getting their ice chests out (and freezing water in containers in advance). I am very much against my neighbors getting generators because they are fire hazards, and as Brian said, “Yeah, you can watch TV but you can’t hear it.” We had a lovely candlelit dinner with canned Italian Meatball soup and Quesadillas while listening to classical music, no hardship here. I was discouraged to come home Thursday to find that Kevin had a very loud football game going on our large flat screen TV. It was such an intrusion. I missed the peacefulness of the power outage. More of that next year, probably. That said, I’m glad Kevin doesn’t have a regular job, he teaches music and plays gigs. He’s been able to hold down the fort here: fussing with acquiring ice, buckets, fresh milk and cleaning out the refrigerator! A couple of weeks ago he decided we needed a new stove and, with a little consultation from me, bought it, installed it and has been making dinners! Thank you, Kevin!

Work is going very well. I have been admitted into this Bedlam. It’s been 8 weeks. I’ve learned the basics of my job and am just polishing and adding details, including the Labyrinth that is insurance, that will take a little longer. There will be more details, I will cross-train to learn the tasks of the 3 case managers. It’s coming along. These people are nut-cases. Looking out from behind my eyeballs it’s like living in a TV sit-com. (Time to research: How to write a screenplay.) The central character is the woman who sits across the aisle from me and manages the process after a member dies: dealing with the staff, notifying and coordinating the family members, keeping track of where the body is, consulting with the funeral home, managing the memorial service at the facility, dealing with the left-over automobile and belongings, including porn and old, decaying teeth. She is the heart of the entire place, everyone knows her. She has a very loud, welcoming “How’re doing? How’s the ___relatives__?” and “Hugs are free!” We have a steady stream of people into the office who’ve invented excuses to come in and get a hug. (For my family members, she’s similar to Darcy behind her bar.) This woman has been very welcoming to me, and I am grateful. There are other characters including a large, very loud, very sweet, gay guy, he wore a King Tut costume for Halloween: a blue and gold headdress, shiny black tunic and skirt, a large, flowing, gold satiny-cape, sandals, black kohl eye makeup and skin finished off with a gold-sparkle lotion. It was perfect, so natural for him. He should dress like this all the time. It is the personal generosity of love and acceptance that these two people radiate that is so appealing (the opposite of my mother’s reticence that I have inherited.) I like to go to work: what’s going to happen today?

Lastly, talking politics at work. I’ve been going to the cafeteria this week for lunch since the power’s been out at home but not at work, I try to sit at a table with at least one other member. I sat with the 102 year old guy (“Hello”), he asked me if I was married. Another day I sat with a younger man who grilled me about members who are not paying their fees. Yes, there are people not paying their ‘rent,’ in fact, it’s a growing number. If there’s no consequences, why not? Is the theory. He finds it very unfair, but who to complain to who can fix this? I suggested he talk with our State Senator, a Vietnam veteran, and proponent of services for veterans. He said he’d think about it, that he had contacted their office years ago and got positive results. As he was leaving, after expressing his opinion, at great length, about people who rely on entitlements, he left by mentioning the Clinton-era reduction of the welfare rolls, I couldn’t help but share my opinion: women should have free access to birth control; in this day and age there shouldn’t be any unplanned pregnancies, and in 20 years our society would be very different. He said, “Hey, I’m all for abortion from conception until maybe 30 years old.”

Many blessings,

Karla, k.j., mom