Thank You!

Well, looks like we all survived the Robbers firestorm relatively unscathed. Being one of the Spring Garden Road bunch, we learned a lot of things from this shall we say “Interesting” experience.

First of all we learned how living in the forest environment of Foresthill comes with it’s own sets of inherent pleasures and potential dangers. Having lived there over 20 years in our own little hidden in the forest utopia has been a dream come true for us. The other side of that shiny coin reared it’s ugly head on Thursday, July 12th when we came home to find our road blocked by a Highway Patrolman telling us we weren’t going home.

No amount of shocked hand waving, starving cats, important business papers, dying house plants or plaintive pleas of only having one set of dirty jeans got us past his cement exterior that night.
“Now what the @#$% do we do?” We cried in anguished dismay and body shaking fear.

That’s when the angels of mercy stepped up to the proverbial plate and saved us. Turns out the owners of the place my wife has worked at for years offered to take us into their home for the few days we thought it would take to quell the monster roaring up the mountain north of us.
So like the lost children we felt to be at that point, we slunked over to their wonderful abode, where they fed, reassured and in general gave us hope that “This too shall pass.”

Scared to death about our cats, the powers that be let us retrieve them and the few items we thought we needed a day or so later, so now our angel friends house was full to the brim with this ragtag homeless bunch they so generously deemed to help in our great time of need.

Then as you all know, that few days turned into far, far more. That’s when we learned so much more about how wonderful folks on the divide truly are. It turned out there are angels galore in our little mountain paradise.
We learned from the meetings first held at the Memorial Hall, then at the High School that the offered evacuation centers set up by the Red Cross for folks with no place to go remained mostly empty. As far as I knew or heard, almost everyone had friends, neighbors and I’m guessing in some cases total strangers who took those evacuees into their homes.
Now whatever your views about life there’s only one accurate word to call all these wonderful, giving, selfless people and that’s angels in the best sense of the word.

I would be amiss not putting a lot of others in that same category.
Obviously we all owe great debt and gratitude to all the Firefighters both local and from as far away as San Diego and points between for their dedication and service. Also all the law enforcement personnel who tried their best to keep our evacuated homes safe from the few low lives I heard they caught looting.
If that’s true, we have some lovely trees up in town plenty strong enough to hold their weight huh?

Last but surely far from least would be to thank all the aerial bomber and Helicopter pilots who made such a difference in such steep inaccessible areas.
I’m not positive but I heard one of those Helicopter Pilots is a homeboy a lot of you know personally. I’m one of those nutcases who runs outside like a little kid every time he flies to and from work up or down the divide. The next time you hear him in the air above, run outside and give him a wave.

If I’ve left anyone out, I’m sorry. As I’m writing this, I’m waiting in glee to once again sleep in my home in our mountain heaven for the first time in 7 days, so please forgive any omissions.


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