Life is a blur, and oh so smoky!

These pictures show a glimpse of how smoky it has been, and the fires are insanely far away! I only wish I could use Willy Wonka's Smell-O-Vision so you could fully experience it. My contact lens' are driving me mad!!



So, it is not that I don't have things happening. Quite the contrary! It seems that I have all this stuff to blog about and yet no time, so when I do have the time I could literally make 20,000 posts (all outdated) in a row. Anyone with me on that?

My husband is away on a fire assignment. This is good because it means...well...he is a-w-a-y. It is bad because he is *sniff, sniff*..... AWAY! It is a good assignment because he is actually on a really nice detail and while right in the middle of a fire area, he is relatively safe. He is the paramedic in the camp, so basically, for the time being, he is handing out sunscreen and bug spray. If anyone does need medical attention, they have medics and a bus (ambulance) close by for immediate response. Fingers and toes are crossed that all those firefighters need on this fire is sunscreen and bug spray!!



The other day he called and asked me to bring him some supplies to make life better. I guess the fire camp is set up in an area that gets a lot of sun and fire conditions being hot, dry and windy...life is better with some shade. He was also hoping not to jinx things, yet expected he could be there a while. Lucky for us, Northern California is burning up for a change, and this means he is within driving time from home. We met at a half way point about 45 minutes from home and I delivered our EZ-Up shade canopy, a cot, his sleeping bag, sleeping pad, clean pillow, iPod shuffle, tarp, generator, small television WITH a remote, small selection of "dude movies", a few music cd's that can be played on the tv, red vine licorice, and clean underwear. Phew!! Can I get a shout out with "What a good wife!!"?




What most people don't know is that when these guys get called to a fire, they leave in the clothes they are wearing and in a hurry. The experienced ones have an "out of county" bag with a few niceties in it, but depending on the station they are covering etc, they might not get to grab it. Honey Bunny has gone to fires locally that lasted a couple days and he had nothing. They sleep sitting in their engine or on the ground...in the clothes they have on. He told me about one fire on a hillside where they cat-napped nearly standing the hill was so steep, listening for rocks rolling down towards them so they could roll to the side. Lovely job isn't it?


I am back to the pros and cons. Overtime rocks! We have dishwashers to replace and bathrooms that need help and we're planning to re-do in August. We also have summer camp next week and I am taking 25 highschool kids with me, and I have a new puppy!. Kids home alone with a housebreaking mini dachshund is scary indeed. Yet, overtime rocks! I have tile and bathtubs to pick out. Smoke is hard to breath in for weeks on end, but quesadillas or Cheerios for dinner is awesome! Husbands who call with "honey do's" because he is away and he knows the lawn needs mowing...well that doesn't exactly stink, but the man can sure come up with some lists of chores because he is sitting around all day thinking of things HE does around here...and now WE need to get done, and that? Well that stinks! Holding down the fort as a single mom with 3 teens is actually....not too bad :-)


I have great kids and we are doing just fine. I am off to call the inlaws! Gotta see if they house/puppy/kid sit in case Honey Bunny doesn't come home.........just keep chanting "Over Time! Over Time!"