After the Beach

Fire update: spreading wildly. Ash is falling from the sky. Water bombers overhead.  Helicopters flying over this morning woke me up. I was afraid there was fire on our mountain.

The wind has swept the smoke up high tonight which is great because we can finally breath. The air was so thick this morning that everyone was wheezing. The thing that destroys a person who lives through a huge forest fire (like the one we lived through 6 years ago) is the constant smoke day in and day out, never seeing the sun and being unable to do any outdoor activities because the smoke wrecks your lungs. It is like living trapped inside for weeks and months. That is what makes living through a massive forest fire so hard. I do not fear for my home this time around–all the fires seem to be across the lake. No, it is the having to give up my outdoor sports that is so hard.

Today was a day of work for me and a coffee at Chapters with my family late afternoon. This evening is low key. I didn’t feel up to a night out so opted instead to hang in the neighborhood. Yes, that best describes my evening–hanging. I’m doing very little but chatting with neighbors on the street, making peanut butter squares, walking up to visit my mom who is babysitting Miranda’s girls tonight. My girls are all doing various activities that involve computers or videos or in Pip’s case, a bowl of cheerios.

Peter’s brother Rob and (sister in law)Edith were due to stop in for a visit tomorrow on their way to Vancouver. However, the highway is closed because of the fire so they’d be trapped in Kelowna indefinitely–they’ll  have to bypass Kelowna this time.