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dcnativegal · 6 years

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From Fire to Evacuation and Back

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

It’s a sunny crisp fall morning, even though it’s still summer. Yesterday morning, with the temperature still in the 40s, there were blue sky and puffy white clouds visible from my recliner as I look out over the orderly but still very full yard. There are many benefits of having a Level Two Evacuation leveled at a small town, and one of them is that many yards are cleaner than they were. Brush and grasses are cleared from the area around the fence of our little property, in the armpit of the hill upon which stands the town cemetery and the best views of the fire from town during the ‘heat’ of it. It’s not as hot now. The smoke has cleared for the most part. It’s blowing west, and there’s less of it, because the bulk of the fuel, the dead pine, has burned already. Today’s total, 56,895 acres, 75% contained. The fire is pretty much finished growing. Alleluia.

Valerie and I went to the third community meeting about the fire Monday night. Instead of talking about evacuation, like we did in the second meeting, there was talk of a contingency line (a ‘just in case’ line around the perimeter of the fire), ‘mopping up’ (putting out spot fires, making sure all the fire is dead), suppression and repair. I’m not sure what repair means when it comes to a forest fire, but a whole lot of logs will be removed.

One of the officials explained that the fire camp will be here for a long while to come and the town won’t be back to a population of 250 until the first snows, to make sure it’s really OUT. Awesome! I’m fine with that! Apparently, the assignments last a certain amount of time, and firefighters will rotate out, so the camp will shrink through attrition. Plenty of other fires to attend to.

There were a few questions, from one particularly classy lady in a cowboy hat and a grey braid down her back, about who or what caused the fire. Very diplomatic answers came from the communications officer saying that Fire Investigators are very busy and doing their thing on this fire and lots of other ones, too. Might have been lightening. Probably not, apparently.

This city slicker has learned a great deal about how to cope with a nearby wildfire, that’s for darn sure, and I didn’t have to grieve the burning of my possessions in the process. Gratitude abounds.

1. Put stuff in a suitcase or a box and label it ‘evacuation.’ Keep the stuff in there as storage for the next fire. And when I look for my passport, I know where it is! Also, high school yearbooks, old family photos I don’t hang on the wall, because #nomorewallspace, and other trinkets.

2. There is some time between Level 1, 2 and 3. Unlike the hot huge fires in California in populated areas, wildfires here in the Oregon High Desert, they move more slowly. So I don’t have to flee with only the clothes on my back. This is deeply good to know.

3. Valerie is a good barometer. If she starts packing, the fire is at the door. Her most repeated phrase to me, after, I love you, is, Fret Not. And so I will not. Or try not to. Fretting is in my nature.

4. Given that I’m a world class fretter, it did help to have my car packed. For five straight days.

5. Fighting fire is kind of like making a movie. A camp is set up at a location. Everyone has a role, a territory, a hierarchy of orders, a protocol, a checklist. And when it’s all over, everyone packs up and it’s like it was never there. The camp that is, not the fire. The result of one is a lot of charred ground and dead animals. The result of the other is a film.

6. Tee shirts with the name of the fire and some sort of graphic is a thing with firefighters. They collect them. I’m getting two, by different vendors with different designs. Perhaps these shirts are the trophies fire fighters collect, like runners do at races.

7. People are generous. They offer to help, offer space, food, time, something to haul belongings in or a field to house livestock. Very cool. One of the forest rangers said that Paisley has been a model town in terms of welcoming the firefighters. I’m glad to hear that! I haven’t done anything but pack my car and go to my job. But I’m glad there are many neighborly neighbors here.

Downsides of wildfires, at least in Oregon:

1. Anxiety. With a few moments of terror and tears. No fun.

2. We cleared the brush and now the deer have gotten to our tomatoes. No more tomatoes. Next year we’ll do an actual chicken wire fence around them. I was so looking forward to lots of tomatoes.

3. Smoke is really icky stuff. Visine doesn’t help the eyes from feeling like you haven’t slept in a week. And if anyone has ever smoked cigarettes or has asthma, the smoke really impairs breathing. Not meant for inhaling.

4. The beautiful canyon of Fremont Winema National Forest will look, aesthetically speaking, like a denuded charcoal pit for a while. The lakes were slurped up, but not drained. Still learning about this, too: the regeneration of forest. I bet there are other blessings about this fire for the forest. I’m not sure. It’s going to look sad for a long time, though. The non-forest service populace won’t be allowed to drive ‘over the mountain’ west to Bly until next spring. But apparently, Campbell Lake and a bunch of other sites look just fine.

5. People will snipe. Accuse the ‘liberals in Washington’ of leading to fires like this one. Of suspecting that fires are allowed to burn so that someone can make money. The firefighters? Who’s making money? I don’t understand that one but I’m open to hearing. I also heard that local ranchers were ready to put out the fire with ‘dozers and cats’ but the Feds said stand down and thus it burnt and got away from everyone. I heard that one from 2 different folks on opposite sides of the county. Conspiracy theories abound. Our monkey brains have to come up with something to do, I guess. The Watkins Creek Fire started on federal land. It was the Forest Service’s job to stop it. The politics of logging and land use is still way beyond me. But the firefighters saved our town. I’ll just keep reading about the rest of it.

Meanwhile, life goes on. Yesterday was my Lakeview day, and I got to have lunch with a friend (I do this every Tuesday and its lovely), go shopping at Safeway (always do this, too), grabbed books at the Lakeview Library to bring up to Paisley, saw two clients, and checked in at the main office of our agency. I didn’t hit the thrift shops, since I don’t need to buy anything inedible ever again period end of sentence. (Maybe next week.)

I am grateful for all the support and well wishes, prayers, and admonitions to put safety first from friends and family near and far. Valerie says if I don’t post about it in Facebook, it didn’t happen. That’s only a slight exaggeration. Moving out here to the hinterlands, the high desert at 4,000 feet, the middle of a county with no traffic lights, I enjoy staying in touch, however superficially and sporadically, with my old friends, coworkers, parishioners, and kinfolk through Facebook. Thank you for reading. How do you like my new tee shirt? What sugar skulls have to do with wildfires I do not know but it’s really pretty, isn’t it?

***********

Here are my Facebook posts from the start of the fire, just so I can revisit the process of my enlightenment about fires near my adopted home. The fire started on my birthday, August 15th, but I didn’t know about it until Thursday, the 16th. My first post, of many, obviously.

August 16, 10am

Well blech. Paisley is just to the east of the Watkins Creek Fire, one of many burning around here.

August 16, 6pm

Watkins Creek Fire, from my evening commute on Route 31 looking south.

August 18, noon

This is what the air is like around here. Thank you, Shelly Rutledge Leehmann, for sharing your beautiful picture.

August 20, 7am

So, this is my first "Fire in Paisley." I'm taking my cue from the locals, as i am a transplant from the big east coast (aka, "wet") city. At last night's community meeting, everyone seemed very calm. All the officials from all kinds of agencies did their job capably. They explained this is a tricky fire, there is a lot of 'fuel' from a beetle-caused die off of lodgepole pine 10 years ago, and the terrain is mostly Forest Service land and rough. Safety of the people (mostly men?) fighting the fire is paramount, of course. Bulldozers and caterpillars ("Dozers and Cats") are very helpful and faster than people with shovels. We got to hear from a meteorologist, which was pretty cool, since fire creates its own weather AND the way the wind blows will be the difference between Paisley-Flambé versus a whole lot of dead trees only. And maybe a few unfortunate cows and many other non-human animals, most of whom ran, flew or hopped to safety.

So I’m feeling pretty okay. One woman asks, should we pack? And the gal with the mic says, always a good idea. And another asks, how contained is the fire, and she says, zero. Oh!! Adrenaline rush. Not so okay.

After the meeting, we drive up to the highest point in the city where the cemetery is: we can see the smoke and there's a red glow to the west and south. Ominous.

I already have an anxiety disorder. But, anxiety can be useful. I came home and packed up my clothes. I put a few bags of things that won't suffer in the hot car in the trunk. I found my passport and my birth certificate, and my grandfather's dog tags from 1917. My kids' dad has all the baby albums, but i have some important photographs, so I’ve packed them. I will need a cooler for my insulin when the time comes, IF it comes.

I'm more or less ready. And Valerie is very calm. So I’m going to let the current of "evacuation anxiety" just flow along, and it's okay if I obsessively check the twitter page for the South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership for updates. Now i know that infrared photos from helicopters is how they estimate the acres once a day. I know that a lot of agencies are coordinating. And one of the forest service guys lives in Paisley: he promised he'd put flyers in the post office and other spots in town ASAP if there's real news. Like Level 1 evacuation orders. And Level 2 and 3 news will be delivered by the Sheriff's office. Door to door.

Just another day in Paradise.

As everyone says, we are all very grateful to the professionals as well as our local volunteers. The town has tripled in size and the traffic (traffic?!!??) is noticeable through town. There's a tent city on Murphy's ranch: looks like Cirque de Soleil has come to town.

Now that would be fun.

Alas, it's time to go about the business that needs to be done, which in my case is get organized about my application to become a CADC 1. Certified Alcohol & Drug Counselor. Better get crackin'. Thanks for reading.

August 21, 1145am

I emailed about Level 1 Evacuation and got this response. I don’t know why this hasn't been mentioned?

Hi, Jane,

Yes, there is a Level 1 Evacuation for residents west of Highway 31 between mileposts 79 and 105.

Residents in the area should be aware of current conditions. If evacuations become necessary, it will be coordinated through the Lake County Sheriff's Office. It's recommended to always "Be Ready" when living near a fire-prone area.

Thank you,

Jodie Barram Watson Creek Fire Information Center Paisley, Oregon

August 22, 2018, 6am

Evacuation is on my mind this morning. I found a guide seems particularly thorough. Put buckets of water around the house. close windows. put ladder alongside the house for firefighters to use. I worry if the propane tanks are empty on the front of the camper that we use for storage. (Val says they are.)

I can smell smoke in the house this morning. My eyes are stinging. I'm packing up my car with more of my stuff and driving to Christmas Valley to my job. My guess (wtf do i know) is that if there's an evacuation, it will happen tomorrow, so I’m anticipating driving to and from Christmas Valley today to work, packing up MORE stuff, and heading back up there tomorrow, maybe staying up there. Valerie Little would go to Lakeview to her daughter's. In order to see my clients, i would rent a room in Christmas Valley or impose on one of my coworkers. Then stay in Brothers (i hope y'all don't mind.) But seriously, i am an anxious snowflake. I'll tell you true, folks, this is pretty awful. I don't fear for my life, but i do fear for this beautiful small town that has a very active world in it. We may be tiny but we are mighty.

Everyone tells me, stay safe. I want everyone to be safe from fire, of course. What does safe mean? A dense fog has descended and it isn't fog. It's smoke.

I need more coffee.

August 23, 2018 3:15pm

The community meeting tonight in Paisley about the Watson Creek Fire told us that there's a moderate chance of evacuation due in part to windy weather predicted that will push embers toward our town. Folks with no pets and nowhere else to go will be welcomed at the high school in Lakeview, the Red Cross coordinating. Apparently, there are 2500 head of cattle normally grazing in the fire area, and some brave cattlemen (and women?) are finding them and bringing them out.

We're told that if we get out of town ourselves after a Level 3 evacuation announcement is made, we're to tell the sheriff's office where we went and what our cell phone number is so they can tell us when we can come back. Our town has less than 300 souls in it so if we call the main sheriff department in Lakeview, hopefully they won't be overwhelmed with calls.

We have 3 different family members we can impose on, in Lakeview, Chiloquin and Brothers, if it comes to that.

My car is packed. I have a cooler with ice and my insulin. Val's truck has a cover and it's filling up. I have lots of art. Most will stay. Family photos will come with.

I don’t know if I’m overreacting or spot on. Packing to evacuate is sort of like packing to move but we are of course taking no furniture. And very few books. Sort of feels like the Swedish notion of “death cleaning”, the kind of decluttering one does so that the descendents don’t have to deal with your stuff after you shuffle off. All my stained glass treasures, and most of my yarn, stays. Valerie says, worst case scenario, i get to buy new yarn.

Everybody's a comedian.

I'm not panicking this evening. I am tired in a buzzy-anxious sort of way.

I saw a helicopter flying over me as i drove home in my packed car tonight. it had a red thing dangling underneath it. Valerie says that's a bucket of water. It looks so small. Apparently, fighting a wildfire like this one, in rugged national park land with lots of 'fuel', means using dirt and 'back burns' pushed toward the periphery of a fire. The fire is bordered by the Sycan, the Sprague, and the Chewaucan rivers. Hopefully, the talent of our firefighters will hold the line, and the town will be spared.

I do not feel personally endangered. I worry about the structures in this cute town I've adopted (and which tolerates me.) I'm okay. Just worried. And the sharp smell of smoke is everywhere in town. I don't have a proper mask, so I’ll just cough and squirt my newly purchased drops into my eyes.

Thank you for the expressions of concern, prayers, and admonitions to stay safe. We are indeed. The cat is oblivious, and we are pretty much ready. Maybe we won't need to evacuate. Which would be great: I really love my late father's old cherry desk and it weighs a TON.

A huge thanks to the local firefighters, like Dustin Withers, who volunteer and know this city deeply. (Yeah, Paisley is one of two 'cities' in Lake County, the other one being Lakeview.) And to all the other professionals, from 14 states we were told, deep and profound thanks to you as well. I hope it's comfortable in that tent city just outside town. I hope the caterer is decent.

This shot is of the poplars that mark the north edge of town. you can barely see them for the smoke.

August 23, 2018, 9pm

All's quiet on the eastern front of the fire which is also the western front of this tiny town. Val and i drove up to the cemetery to see what we could see after the sun set. There's a field full of caterpillars and bulldozers, sitting silently, ready for battle. We cannot see the red glow that was so visible on Sunday evening. We decided it is safe to go to sleep in our home.

The "Emergency Notice: Level 2 -- Be Set" language is pretty urgent: "An evacuation notice has been issued for this area." The entire flyer is in all caps of different sizes. Underlined it says YOU MUST PREPARE TO LEAVE AT A MOMENTS NOTICE [sic] and THIS MAY BE THE ONLY NOTICE THAT YOU RECEIVE. So I ask Valerie, this sounds like we should get out of Dodge NOW: how will we know in the middle of the night if we should boogie? She says, because all hell will break lose in town and people will be running around like headless chickens. Well we ARE located very close to the local volunteer fire department, and the only road going up to the cemetery is right in front of our house. PLUS, we did not see a glow over the ridge to our west.

This rural wildfire thing is tricky on my emotions. A few times since this fire started (on my birthday, for pity's sake), I've been near tears and quietly panicking. And then I hear more news from someone, or Valerie has some nonchalant practical piece of fire wisdom to impart, and I immediately feel better. The fire is 6 direct miles from town, 13 miles by road. It's being held in by 3 rivers, near as I can figure from the daily infrared fire maps: the Sycan, the Sprague, and the Chewaucan. The most recent notice from the South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership says the fire has NOT jumped the Chewaucan, which is one of the major barriers keeping it from town. I'm afraid my emotional reverberations are amplified by the frequency with which we moved when I was a kid, and the unpleasantness that always accompanied those moves. This insight helps a little to know why I am seized by panic periodically.

We are totally packed. I feel like i evacuate the town every time i drive to work, which is an hour north, and then I come home, and stuff more stuff into my Honda Fit. Which is not that big a car. Valerie is traveling light; she isn't packing much partly because she doesn't think the house will burn and partly because she doesn't care that much about her stuff, I guess. Every morning since Tuesday, I've packed my c-pap machine, and every night I bring it back into the house and set it up. I'd rather be prepared.

I asked Valerie, who used to look for fires on top of Indian Rock Lookout near John Day, Oregon, what the difference is between the Carr fire that's still burning in Cali and decimated whole neighborhoods, and our Watkins Creek conflagration. She says our dead trees do not have sap in them anymore so they don't burn as hot. The temperatures in that part of California are 20 degrees hotter there than here in summer. And the winds blow the fire very fast. Here in rural high desert "Great Basin" Oregon, the fastest the fire would move is one mile per hour. And from what the Fire Management Partnership is saying, the lines they are building are holding, mostly. The fire grows every day, but percentage wise, much less. It's at 40,000 acres. It will be with us for a few more weeks. But the fuel of dead trees will eventually be used up. And maybe these 'lines' of which they speak, will hold.

I hear various comments from people that i don't understand, and i guess the longer i live out here the more i'll get it. A woman served me fish and chips for lunch in Lakeview on Tuesday (don't judge. I had nothing but vegetables tonight) and when she learned i was from Paisley she says, you know it's the liberals in Washington who caused this fire... So i ask Valerie (my memoir from life in Paisley should be titled "So i asked Valerie) is that true? And she says, well, no one can agree on what the best policy is on dead timber, and the Forest Service has done stupid stuff through both Republican and Democrat administrations... Okay. I heard that the firefighters are happy because they're making money, getting overtime and night work differentials. Well i hope so. I don't like heat, thank you. I hear that initially our local volunteers had things more or less under control and then the officialdom showed up and said stand down, and the fire whooshed up. From two different sources in different parts of the county. Is that true? Or is it a sturdy rumor that's traveled? I heard the fire was called by a ranch hand who took a chainsaw into the woods and a spark caused the fire. No one will cop to that. The cause of the fire is labeled "human" (versus lightening). I wonder if there is one human responsible and how they're feeling. People make mistakes. I do multiple times a day. But... were they wantonly foolish? I dunno. It's another committee I’m not on.

I've received wonderful generous offers of homes to evacuate to, and questions about whether we need anything. There is so much kindness that flows at times like these. People are offering pastures for cattle and goats, places to park their RVs (which folks use for extra bedrooms around here.) I am privileged and grateful.

I'm going to bed. I know all of us in Paisley will be checking our phones and computers first thing, we'll look around anxiously, our eyes will sting from the smoke (Visine alas does not help), and we'll cough and wheeze. If everything is much worse, i won't go to work and we will evacuate, probably to Chiloquin where there's room for us and the cat. If everything seems stable, I’ll still pack up my c-pap and head north to Christmas Valley, I’ll catch up with 'paperwork' which no longer involves any paper, and i'll text Valerie frequently. I'll also continue to obsessively check the various sites that post information, and the Facebook group called For Sale in Paisley which is our electronic bulletin board.

I honestly don't think the house will burn up. I do not fear for my own safety. i think that these 800 or so fire fighters will work hard to keep the fire to our west, and we'll suffer through the dense smoke for weeks. My beautiful framed Pakistani prayer rug will survive, as well as my art photography. The house that Valerie and Jer built from the inside out will stand comfortably for another year.

Then again, if i have to evacuate in my jammies, I will grab my keys, phone, computer and c-pap, and my car and her truck will exit stage left.

'Night all.

August 25, 2018, 11 a.m.

It's Saturday morning here in Paisley Oregon, Day # 11 of the Watkins Creek Fire. We're still on a Level 2 Evacuation and a few families have left. It was much less smoky up north yesterday, which was delightful, but it's really smoky here in town still. My car is packed, but we're busy taking all kinds of dead limbs and trash to the dump to reduce the hazard to the house and clean up a bit.

I have so many questions, like, if the 'fire lines are holding', why does the fire grow thousands of acres every day? Why did i see a bunch of smoke columns, like 5, along the east side of Winter Rim as i drove home to Paisley yesterday? Maybe there were firefighters by them, putting them out, but they were disconcerting.

I am grateful for many things, not the least of which is i am much less anxious for some reason. My car is still packed, but it's gotten through my thick head that the fire moves slowly and I’ll have time to beat feet out of here if i need to. I'm so glad to feel calmer.

Off to the dump. More anon.

Saturday, August 25, 2018, 8pm

This article says it is not the fault of ‘liberals in DC’ that there are destructive forest fires…

http://mailtribune.com/opinion/guest-opinions/the-inconvenient-truth-about-forest-fires

Sunday, August 26, 2018 5pm

The fire has grown a cerebellum!

Excuse me while I let my imagination run wild. Better call the Paisley Volunteer Fire Department, the South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership, the Keno Oregon fire department (I’ve seen their trucks here), the Forest Service, Oregon Department of Forestry, the Bureau of Land Management... to put out my imagination. Oh wait! They're pretty tied up at the moment!!

It's sunny and breezy here in Paisley, town of 250 souls normally, and now we are at 1300 souls, more or less. We also welcome the Burners (the Burning Man folks) who are passing through apparently, as they do every year. The Summer Lake Hot Springs is full of them. It's hunting season for antelope by bow hunters. Might see a few of those hunters parked outside the Mercantile while they stock up on beer. It's a regular Grand Central Station. If you hear an accent that's not quite British, and not quite Australian, those are fire fighters from New Zealand.

I found a web site that lists all the active fires in the USA each day. I know, such cheerful google-searching I'm doing here. I've learned that, in Oregon, the Klondike Fire is twice the size of our Watson Creek Fire in terms of acres, and each fire is 40% contained. Nevada has a big one near Elko, 129,000 acres. Idaho has a big one, too; 65,000 but it's mostly contained. Contained is not controlled but it is better than not contained. Colorado's marijuana caught fire and caused 108,000 acres of damage, and it's 91% contained. Kidding about the cause.

Poor California. The Mendocino Complex Fire is about 78 per cent controlled and torched 430,000 acres more or less. The Carr Fire is at about 230,000 and finally is 95% contained. I'm not hearing much about Alaska, but it is on fire, and this site says none of the fires are above 4% contained. Big fires: the Zitziana Fire at 59,000, Dulby Hot Springs at 44,000 and several more.

The Watkins Creek Fire is the fourth largest in the USA right now. Our friend (and massage therapist) Toni Bailie said that in her daily update, so of course i had to look it up. Yup. We're #4. Not that, as i used to say to my children, it's a competition, for pity's sake.

(Here's the site with the state by state lists, updated on weekdays: https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/nfn.htm)

It was clear and lovely last night. Smoky and grey this morning. Now it's sunny, a few puffy white clouds in the blue sky, and windy. We are at the mercy of the wind: how strong and what direction. Although the reports from the SCOFMP folk sound increasingly confident, the darn fire keeps growing thousands of acres each day.

(The latest news from 448pm: “The #WatsonCreekFire has been exposed to gusty winds today coming from the southwest to the northwest, and the containment lines have held well as of 4:00 p.m. this afternoon. Some burnout is being conducted in the northwest corner of the fire, where winds are favorable. The Lake County Sheriff's Office, in collaboration with Northwest Incident Management Team 6, has agreed to retain all evacuation levels at their current status and will re-evaluate tomorrow at 4 p.m. after the wind has diminished.)”

So we go about our business on this glorious Sunday, with sunshine and a breeze, temperature in the 60s, as if everything is fine. Except for traffic. And the smoke that descends from the ridges each night.

It's so normal around here that Valerie decided to weed-whack. As if we'll HAVE a lawn in the near future? She shrugged. She told her niece over the phone that she's in denial and I’ve been evacuated for a week. A slight exaggeration, but only slight. Paisley is still under a Level 2.

You know, I have to say, the sound of helicopters is just ominous. I know they're here to measure the fire, and carry buckets of water to some spot that needs water; even though the buckets look pathetically small way up there, apparently bucket-dumping is one of the effective tools of fire 'management.' The helipad is out by the rodeo corral, which is near our airport strip, just north of town. There's a sign on route 31 by the goat pen on the edge of town that points to this spot. It says in a handwritten sign: FUEL. Helicopter fuel, i guess. I'm certainly glad they're here. But i don't like the sound of them.

It will be great when we don't need them.

I went to church today for the first time in months, to hear the new preacher. He's married to a lovely gal who's joined our writer's group. I appreciated the former preacher's sincerity and humility, but i just couldn't glean much from his message. This guy has a sense of humor, he uses power point to help us read the scripture he's referencing while he talks, and he had stories to tell. Alleluia, a story. With a beginning, middle and end. I enjoyed his sermon very much; needed to hear it.

At the beginning of the service, our neighbor asked if there'd been any birthdays, and i raised my hand. "I turned 59 on the first day of the fire. I didn't mean to blow out the candles quite so hard!" Folks laughed. One asked, are you being investigated? I said yup. I'm the human referred to as 'human caused'! More laughter. And they sang me the white person's Happy Birthday song.

(The Black person's birthday song is the chorus of Stevie Wonder's song, Happy Birthday, which you can watch here as he celebrates Nelson Mandela's birthday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inS9gAgSENE.)

I had a bit of a revelation while sitting in the pew. I hold different tenets of faith than many if not most of the folks who attend. I do not believe that the only way to salvation is to declare that Jesus is my savior. I believe that, for me, tuning into Jesus is my favorite way to catch the radio station called "God", but there are many other radio stations. Alice Walker said in The Color Purple that we don’t go to church to find God but to share God. Here in church, we can share faith, and good and bad news, and disagree about whether the ONLY way to salvation is through Jesus. Just like we can also disagree about whether I'm going to hell because I'm gay. I figure, there are more adulterers in this county than gay people, and they go to church without a qualm. Thus, so can I.

I'm a bit thick. But these thoughts were helpful, relieving even, and instead of feeling a little bit defensive in the pew, I could feel compassion. None of us here gathered know shit, really. We hope and trust and do the best we can.

And we know shit happens. Fire happens. And once again, I turn to the wisdom of Mr. Rogers: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” Our town is full of helpers, together, and therefore we are not alone. We will still be here, or at least nearby when this fire is 100% contained.

August 26 at 12:24 PM ·

South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership - SCOFMP

August 26 at 12:20 PM ·

The #WatsonCreekFire was subdued overnight. However, light winds overnight are expected to increase throughout the day and test fire lines on the eastern perimeter. Get the full report: https://goo.gl/Zye7DP

Monday, August 27, 2018

Weeee hooo! We the People of Paisley are now at a Level One Evacuation instead of 2, which means i'm unpacking my cooler full of insulin and putting it all back in the fridge. So relieved.

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