Thankful Thursday

This evening, we did a little hike to see what was happening on the fire front. When we arrived at the view of the Continental Divide, we were stunned. A wildfire on the other side of the Divide blew up today, creating a smoke plume that dwarfed the towering mountains.

 

That's a 13,000' peak below the smoke and it looks tiny compared to the smoke plume. The smoke looked orange due to the sun setting behind it.

The world feels entirely out of control here in Colorado. Our very hot and dry weather all summer means that the world is primed to catch on fire. If you add wind to that mix, it creates a disaster.
 

The world of the past few days has made me yearn for the somewhat more normal days of earlier this month. Our smoke was from further away, and sometimes we could see the world clearly like at dawn when the moon was full.

We haven't heard any real news about "our" fire. Time will tell. We will keep trying to get into our house to get it ready for the hard freeze this weekend. Rumors are flying around, which intensifies our feeling of having no control over our lives. We fear leaving the dogs alone in the house even briefly because a new fire might erupt, and we might not be able to get back in to evacuate them. We feverishly refresh the local wildfire news to try to understand what we're seeing outside. It's so stressful.

But, I do feel thanks for some things in our lives. I am thankful that our land and house haven't burned. I am thankful that I saw the full moon set earlier this month. I am grateful that Hachi is handling all the wildfire tumult and the craziness of cleaning out the old house amazingly well. And, I am always thankful for Shyla who makes my days brighter.