still here

Posted on February 8, 2021 by paridevita

Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to tell you about our latest adventures. You may remember me from such posts as “Ice Isn’t Nice”, among so many, many others.

Here I am in a characteristic pose.The last few days have been pretty exciting here, but not in a good way.
The first thing that happened was that I had some distress of one kind of another (the guy I live with said I got a string from one of my Lamb Chops caught in my mouth) and had to go out and eat a bunch of grass, twice, after midnight, a few nights ago. I’m okay now (the guy I live with cleaned up all the grass from the living room carpet); it’s a good thing there was still some green grass out in the garden.
But the guy I live with wasn’t very happy about this. I know he wants me to be healthy and happy, and worries about me.

The other thing was a much bigger deal, if you ask me.

Some time after noon yesterday, when it was really windy, gusting up to fifty miles per hour, the guy I live with smelled smoke, and a few minutes later, there was a large column of smoke west of us. The guy I live with thought it might be pretty close, so we went on another walk, to see exactly where the fire was.
I wanted to look for voles along the creek, because the wind was scary, but he dragged me up to the last street on the west side of our neighborhood (I’d never been there), and this is what we saw:
That’s Mount Morrison, where Red Rocks Amphitheater is, in the distance, about five miles away, to the northwest.
There’s a highway between us and where the fire was.
It was so windy, though, that the guy I live with was pretty worried, and kept wondering if we would have to leave. He was making a mental list of stuff to take. The most important thing, besides me, is a little bag of his wife’s jewelry that the coroner gave him.
The neighborhoods to the north of the highway were evacuated, but then he realized that the fire was moving east, and not southeast, so we just waited to see what would happen.
The wind died down at about five in the afternoon, and the fire was pretty much out soon after that. It burned over 400 acres; there were flames a hundred feet high. We have a very good fire department; the main building is close to us. We walk past it on our night-time walks (which we don’t go on when it’s really cold).

So, whew.
Now there’s the business of the weather. It’s supposed to get down to zero this weekend. No degrees at all. The guy I live with is not thrilled. “We need more degrees”, he said.

Other than that, things here are more or less the same.
On my evening walk today, I heard hooting. (This is me, hearing hooting.)The owls haven’t left to find a nest yet. They were just waking up.Look at those feet.
Pretty scary, huh? I tried to scare the owl but it wasn’t even slightly concerned. I think you can see why.

That’s it for today. We’re still here.

Until next time, then.

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30 Responses to still here

  1. Helena W. says:
    February 8, 2021 at 10:22 pm

    Thank goodness that you are still here! Or there really because you are not where I am, In Oregon these days.

  2. amateurplantsman says:
    February 9, 2021 at 2:37 am

    That fire looks pretty scary, much more scary than the wind. I’m glad your Fire Crew did such a good job in dealing with it

    • paridevita says:
      February 9, 2021 at 10:05 am

      It was. The wind was scary, too, if you’re a lightweight purebred border collie with a heavy winter coat. The guy I live with said it used to be even windier here, but I’d rather not think about that.

  3. Cindee says:
    February 9, 2021 at 7:14 am

    I am glad you are safe. I hate fires too. I am glad you did not have to evacuate. We have some big fires here in northern California. )-: We also have great horned owls that lived in the yard. But we do have degrees here and some rain on the way. Yippeee! Stay warm!

    • paridevita says:
      February 9, 2021 at 10:09 am

      It started to rain here a few days ago; that was weird, since it doesn’t rain here. It didn’t even turn to snow. People here thought it was wonderful, but wet soil, combined with cold temperatures like we’re going to have, would probably be fatal to the agaves and a lot of bulbs.
      The guy I live with said that people around here can have odd reactions to “weather events”.
      I guess it was kind of hard to judge which was the fire was moving, from the lay of the land. And maybe it wouldn’t have crossed the highway.

  4. BellaDharma an LadyMew says:
    February 9, 2021 at 5:10 pm

    YIKESS!! That Owl has Killer Clawss Mani…hee cuud hert sumone badlee with those talonss….
    Wee are so reeleeved you an Guy are OKay! That fire was scarey an LadyMew sayss 400 acress iss alot of land…..
    Mee wundered how high 100 feet was an LadyMew tried to tell mee…butt mee got so dizzy….so mee knowss it iss furry high up.
    And no deegreess iss chilley inndeed……wee are so chilley cold wee have heet at 68-70 deegreess! When North wind blowss it iss furry chilly inn our place….
    Mee iss not feelin 100% purr cent an mee iss apposta go to mee Vet Fursday *sighss*
    Wish mee well Mani!
    ***purrss*** BellaDharma an {{huggiess}} LadyMew too

  5. Lisa says:
    February 10, 2021 at 10:34 am

    I never thought about what I would take in an evacuation until last year. I wasn’t prepared at all. The pets of course, and food for them (I forgot a litter box!), but I really saw how little all my things mean to me. Like the guy you live with, a small bag of jewelry. Important papers (although those are mostly online now I suppose). My son grabbed the computer hard-drives. Smoke is scary. Although, having a Lamb Chop string caught is pretty scary too. And, walking someone where new must have been very scary.

    • paridevita says:
      February 10, 2021 at 10:56 am

      It was pretty scary. The guy I live with said he and his wife used to walk up there, when they went on evening walks without Slipper and Chess, the two purebred border collies who lived here before me. But it was mostly scary because of the wind.
      The guy I live with wanted to take almost everything in the house, which seemed kind of silly to me. They are just things, but they have memories attached to them, I guess.

  6. Paddy Tobin says:
    February 10, 2021 at 4:32 pm

    Those fires are dreadfully scary. I’m glad all is well, danger passed etc.

  7. tonytomeo says:
    February 10, 2021 at 11:49 pm

    Oh my; that is scary. There was a bad fire here last August, and the region was evacuated, but I was in the Santa Clara Valley when it happened. I missed the whole thing, but could see it on the news. Many neighbors lost homes.

  8. ceci says:
    February 11, 2021 at 3:32 pm

    I’ve seen those big flames, albeit from a distance (in the Wind River Mountains) and its a sobering sight. And thinking about what to take in an evacuation is very hard; I had a job once where we were required to plan and set up a bag that you would grab on the way out the door if needed and it was useful to go through the thought process have that wet up; for us it came down to a coupe pieces of jewelry, meds, documents, pictures and kids/animals, plus specialized animal food. We were lucky never to have to take it any farther than the set up stage! I’m glad you all didn’t have to go anywhere either!

    ceci

    • paridevita says:
      February 11, 2021 at 4:19 pm

      Thanks; I guess the excitement will be over for a while, since it’s supposed to snow this weekend, and be really cold. (Like below zero.)
      We do sometimes have a drill if we think a bad storm is coming.
      I think the main reason for the agitation here was the wind, and uncertainty as to the direction of the fire. The guy I live with watched that video of the main street in Phoenix (or maybe Talent), Oregon, where one side of the side was totally on fire, and it creeped him out, because it’s been so, so dry here.

  9. Christine says:
    February 17, 2021 at 8:35 am

    Stay safe and well! You and TGYLW and your snowdrop pictures are important to us!

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