We are fine

Today is Saturday and we are in day 5 (I think) of wildfires and day 3 of "level 2" evacuation. Level 2 just means hurry up and wait. We had to pack but then not go. Level 3 is when you have to go, go now, no more time to pack. There are so many people in level 3 that the county asked us in level 2 to stay home because the traffic was so bad. Anyway, the smoke has cleared somewhat and it really does not appear that we will have to go.

Photo I took on Wednesday, no filter. See how the sky should be blue but it is orange.

My address was at level 1 evacuation at that point. Level 1 just means that residents have to monitor the emergency alert system.

On Thursday at 1pm they changed my address to Level 2. The fire itself is about 20 miles from my house, so the level 2 evacuation was more about the smoke/air quality. We packed our suitcases with clothes and put a few things in the car. Then we hosed everything down in case of sparks. Smoke makes me nauseous and for the first time in my life I was happy to wear a mask.

Yesterday was Friday and the air quality was much better. Today is about the same as yesterday. Rain is on the way this week and then hopefully the evacuations will stop and we can unpack.

It was surprisingly easy to pack. All my years of preparedness and minimalist training actually paid off. I know I have written about this before, that many years ago a building fire and a car accident (I was not even in the car) showed me that I was not mentally prepared. I have been so careful to train myself since those incidents. But I was actually surprised that it worked. I felt like I should have been more panicked or something. More freaking out about stuff to put in the car "just in case". I actually started questioning my own sanity because I was NOT panicking and running around like a chicken with the head cut off. I thought surely I must have been forgetting something critical. After several hours and still no level 3 order, I could see that I have actually trained my brain very well. Nearly everything we have is "backed up" in some way. 99.9% of things that aren't backed up, we are ok with walking away from. The memories are in our heads, not in the things themselves, and my brain is ok with it. Apparently same with Mike's brain and the kids' brains. We have gone over this and over this many times but never had to face it in reality until now. And yet I'm surprised with how well it worked.

The emergency alert system went off on my phone at 3:30pm Thursday. It was just an alert regarding level 2 evacuation. But the kids heard the alarm and grabbed their little suitcases and ran to the car. They thought it was level 3 time. I had to run after them and tell them it was still only level 2. Mae packed milk in her suitcase. Libby packed water.

Several of my neighbors have RVs or multiple properties. We don't have either of those things. Another piece of land has been on our wish list for a long time. 

In other news, one reason I have not posted our vacation photos yet (I have 2 sets of vacation photos) is because our internet modem failed, we got a new one, and our connection is just terrible. But of all miracles, somehow my address is eligible for fiber and so we are supposed to get fiber on Monday. So when my internet is finally working on Monday I will start uploading vacation photos.

In the meantime the internet connection is so poor I can't even watch TV. Can't go anywhere. Can't work on my deck painting project because of air quality. I am very bored.