Note:
Before I continue my pictorial journey through the fire zone with Jan,
Jim arrived yesterday at my house. We hadn't seen each other in over a
year. As Jan and I headed for Glencoe, work crews were clearing dead
trees too close to the road.
And, then the irony of the sign, proving defensible space really works. I guess we all know that.
We stopped at this completely burned house close to the side of the road.
The
house is rubble and there stands a green tree in contrast to the heat
that must have been generated by this burn. Mind boggling.
It
was upsetting. It reminded me so much of what we kids faced when our
school bus driver let us off at the burned remains of our house in
Michigan in the spring of 1948. We didn't know if our parents and
younger brothers were alive or dead.
The
vineyard survived and I wondered if this was my friend Malvini's place?
I haven't driven this road in several five years. Almost every house on
the side of the road to Glencoe, was obliterated.
This family is living out of their pick-up surrounded by the depressing rubble of their once beautiful home.
How
do you move on when all your neighbors are in the same bad way; still
in shock, struggling to come to terms with the sudden loss of everything
they built, that sheltered them and provided everyday comforts of life?
At the top of the ridge, I peered down the canyon at the devastation. Places where every tree is missing, the ground bared.
Then,
you come across a place where half an oak is burned, the other half
green. The top and bottom of a pine is burned but the middle is green.
As we neared town, bright splotches of green began to show
The town expressed their gratitude.
At
my son's place, I climbed the fence and walked the hill. He ran out of
money when the economy collapsed and was unable to complete his house.
The workshop was intact, but a neighbor stopped me and told me he had
been burglarized along with his closest neighbor on the same driveway.
He is meeting with his insurance rep today.
As we left Glencoe, the tree crews were still hard at work in a steeper part of the canyon. |
| 2015-10-14-A day of Diversion |
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