The Fire, Day 3

Owl's Head Blown Off by High Winds

The owl on my balcony lost his head this morning or maybe it was yesterday. Everything is topsy turvy. No sense putting it back because the wind is kicking up again. Luckily, no flames here in this paradise though the fire is just 10 miles away. Friends have been evacuated. Friends have lost a home.

View from Ventura Marina Last Evening

Smoke Above Oxnard Today

I bought a membership at Costco and went there to breathe today as the smoke clouds stalled over my house. I bought a bunch of things for an easy dinner and had friends over. They arrived wearing masks. It's that bad. But now that the winds are blowing again the air is much clearer here. But. Those winds are very bad news for the fire.

More Oxnard Smoke

 I am safe. Here is the bulletin from the city of Oxnard: "At this time there is no threat of active fire in the city of Oxnard and the municipal water system is functioning normally, and the water supply is safe to drink."

And I'm all set for a power outage due to the high winds tonight. All devices charged.

Thanks for all of the messages of love and concern. It helps.

Bears

I am afraid of being eaten by a wild animal. Bears. Sharks. Mountain lions. Alligators. Crocodiles.

This is how the summary of the first hike on a trip I'm about to take to Alaska reads: "View nesting bald eagles, beavers, moose and bears in their natural habitat. The guide, a naturalist, (carries a shotgun) takes you...."

I really think I'll be fine. I don't really think I'll be eaten alive by a bear. I think I'm more likely to keel over with fright if there's an encounter with a bear. And then be eaten. But at least then I won't know I'm being eaten.

I went through a period of dreaming about bears a couple years ago. If you're so inclined, you can read about that HERE,  HERE, AND HERE.

When I first moved my mother in with me, she frequently woke me up with her growling/moaning sounds. Until I got used to it, I was convinced there was a wild animal stalking my house.

I took a hike in the back country of Wyoming once. Across a ravine there was a grizzly bear ravaging some berry bushes. We moved on. Rather quickly, singing the Hey bear, ho bear, go away bear song. Just a short way into our long hike back to our cabin, I noticed that the trail was lined with berry bushes. Then we saw bear prints. We'd already studied our wildlife guide and knew how to identify grizzly prints.  Yep. There were those long claws. I doubt that I ran the 12 miles down that mountain screaming, but the adrenaline my body generated made me feel like I had. We had dinner that night at  Jenny Lake Lodge. Mid-way through dinner, I began running a fever, which somehow contributed to the surreal deliciousness of the meal. I guess if you're going to see a bear on the trail, that's a great way for the story to end.

Report from the Wild Kingdom

I live in suburbia in a house with only a patio for a back yard. I have two tiny flower beds, a palm tree and a handful of potted plants in each of them.

The neighborhood used to look like this.

Right now, we have a possum living in this pot--or more correctly, an opossum, I guess. It always surprises me when the wildlife perseveres and stays to live with us humans.

I discovered it yesterday when I saw that the pot was tipped over and went to set it up, and a  white furry face poked up from  a pile of leaves. I'm supposing it's a female opossum and the leaves are a nest. I jumped back--not exactly in horror. But you know. A possum in a pot. Just a few feet from my patio door. My mom happened to be outside, and I suggested that she keep her distance from the pot. Hahahahaha. She walked right over. 

I'm planning to let mother nature do her thing. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with my 

mother.

My brother was bit by a possum a few years back while repairing a floor in a mobile home. He had to get rabies shots, and I teased him a bit. Like, you know know you're a redneck if....Yeah, if two people in my family get bit by a possum, I'd say our rural roots are kinda indestructible.

So here's a picture of me in France with a French winemaker. Ahem. I'm really very sophisticated. And if anybody around here gets bit by a possum, I'm gonna swear like crazy.

Do Not Change the Channel

Like many children, my grandchildren have been raised on TV and videos. Staring at a screen first thing in the morning, last thing at night, and plenty of time in between. I don't hanker for the chirp and drone of the TV in the background as company, and during visits from my son and his family, I would often turn the TV off when I found that no one was really watching it anyway. This visit things were different. I have no TV here at my new house. Yes, they came with their various small screens, but I think the ocean proved to be more mesmerizing. "Can we go back to the beach?" was the refrain of the past few days, and we grown-ups obliged.

We even took a boat ride to Anacapa, one of the The Channel Islands. A large sea lion lounged on the edge of a boat dock setting up the expectation for wildlife even before we left the harbor. Thirty minutes or so out into the ocean, the dolphins arrived. Dozens of them in the distance at first, and then scores mores, rocketing closer and closer until they were almost close enough to touch, racing along side of the boat or leaping out of the water. A couple of seals popped their heads up, too, and there were more sea lions than we could count on the rocks near Anacapa. Sea gulls hovered above, and squadrons of pelicans were so numerous they became practically became mundane.

I tried to mitigate the media's influence with my daughters, allowing only an occasional video or TV show when they were little and, starting with kindergarten they went to Waldorf School where TV, movies, videos, computers and electronic games of all kinds were discouraged altogether. I felt like I was only partially successful when I was in the thick of it all, and would have probably caved far more often if it weren't for the support of our Waldorf school community. It's so clear to me now that nature is the only real competitor for the pull of the media. And kids want to do things. Sitting means flipping a switch and waiting to be entertained. Being out in a boat on the water, chasing the waves, digging in the sand, playing outdoors, walking the dog, doing chores--there's a satisfaction to all of those things that doesn't seem to crave passiveness.

The flat blue water we were lucky to sail on yesterday was almost like a screen. And real live animals popped right out of it.  I love you, Mother Nature.