Karla Noyes' Captain's Log Series

This is getting old. We had a fire in Sonoma County a couple of weeks ago and now this one which is still burning. Fortunately, both have avoided our stretch of Sonoma Valley (for now.) It’s never pleasant to monitor social media for hours waiting to be told to evacuate. I was up to 3am keeping tabs on the fire’s progress. It’s foolish for us not to have ‘go bags’ packed but I ran through my mind over and over where to find everything. I should have just packed and relaxed. Our county supervisor says it took 40 minutes for the fire to roar down the ridge from the Sonoma-Napa county line to Highway 12 on the Sonoma Valley floor. The speed was due to the wind, which has stopped blowing a gale. Now, thankfully, the wind is coming from the south off the ocean and bringing the fog. We are breathing easier. Good lord, the wind has shifted again and is pushing west to east toward Napa which will slow/stop the spread in Sonoma County. The fire is still burning, and they are currently calling f...

  Some of you know everything; most of you know little about me losing my job. I’ll try to be brief. We all knew it was a possibility that I’ve been contemplating for months, still, it was a surprise. At the end of Tuesday, August 25, 15-minutes before quitting time, my supervisor shows up at my cubby and says, ‘so-and-so in HR wants to see you.’ He had the expression of a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar “not me, I wouldn’t steal a cookie.”   I was presented with a 1-inch thick stack of paper that was my rejection-of-employment-at-the-end-of-probation-report with 37 exhibits! I was stunned, which I’m sure he enjoyed. The HR woman said I could read it right now. At 5 minutes to 4pm? I don’t think so. We walked back to my cubby; everyone had left as per usual. I insisted that I show him the stacks of the project I was in the middle of, “It can wait until tomorrow.” “No, I’ll show you now.” I showed him. He left. I began to pack up my personal stuff and though...