Saturday, January 10, 2009

fire & ice

i didn't believe the people who told me, when i first moved here, that boulder winters are 'mild.' ha ha, whatever, crazy colorado person, i said. but surprisingly, winters haven't been all that bad. sure, i should probably get studded snow tires/chains/a car that can actually go up my driveway, but i'm getting along. i actually like it! i get all stupidly tail-waggingly excited when i experience a new-to-me, different kind of snow – those big, wet flakes you can almost hear hitting the ground, the dry pellety kind that looks like studio-set fakery, or ghostly flurries swirling through the air and down the streets.

my porch, sunday

it snowed over the weekend, and i drove to denver by myself on saturday night to see a show – my first time driving on the highway in snow, no mishaps. by tuesday most of it had melted after a couple of sunny days.

on wednesday afternoon, i was trying to get an assignment done but had run out of food, so i bundled up against the 65mph gusts screaming down the valley and started driving down to the grocery store. but there was a cop blocking the split in the road leading downtown. apparently there was a fire up the road, and if i got back from the store quickly enough, i'd be allowed back to my house. so i continued into town, but when i saw another roadblock at the bottom of the hill, i turned around and went back home to rethink the whole grocery idea.

good thing, because it turns out we were all required to vacate our homes shortly thereafter. i spent half an hour gathering up a few important sentimental items – artwork, jewelry and personal relics, passport, winter coat, external hard drive – and waited for my neighbor to come home and get his dog. he returned, we chatted about the chances of the fire coming anywhere near us, and then i decamped to monkey's place downtown.

later that evening, because i was antsy about the house, we came back to the bottom of the hill to see what we could see, which was this:

olde stage fire, wednesday

my house is in the valley on the other side of that ridge, but the fire was burning slowly and had a complete containment line around it, and the wind was blowing in the opposite direction as the valley. from the news reports, it sounded as though the firefighters were making it a priority to defend property and let the grass burn, and so far only a couple of buildings had gone up in flames. nothing i could do, so i went to bed and slept fine.

next day, i worried and worked distractedly. my road was the last to be opened back up on thursday night. i'd tried coming up earlier to see if i could wheedle the cop into letting me through – that's my house right there, see? i said, but got the apologetic no-go. still, i could see the house still standing and couldn't see any smoky spots nearby, so: whew. but i hadn't actually been to the house in the daylight until today. this is my mailbox (across the street), and in the background is my neighbor's house, with charred grass almost all the way to their deck. that is – how you say? – too close for comfort.

my mailbox, today

thanks for all the kind thoughts and check-in calls and messages; it sounds trite, but i felt fine about losing everything if it were to happen. i'd still have all of you.

happy new year!