According to last night’s news, the number of forest fires in California is now in three digits. One of them is the biggest conflagration in the history of the state, and continues to expand at a terrible rate.
The fire which literally sent Sheila and I packing wasn’t nearly so large. The first sign of trouble was the plume of smoke rising from the river valley a few miles away. Fire fighters, to include borate bombers, responded quickly but the smoke grew…and grew. Sheila and I observed, tensely, and listened to the news. At first we were confident that the situation was well in hand…but minute by minute the clouds of grey loomed larger, streaked with a darker shade . At some point we realized that we would be forced to evacuate and we began hurriedly to assemble everything we wanted to save.
It wasn’t that we didn’t have a plan – but it was not without holes; we neglected to consider the actual volume of the items we needed to evacuate. Some of these things were bulky, and heavy, but without them our lives would be much harder. Firearms, of course…cash and valuables…essential documents…but also precious books; scores or hundreds of volumes comprising the history of the Asatru revival in North America and in the world. And our pets…We actually lost one of our cats in the chaos and stress; we tried to get her in a pet carrier, and she bolted. We haven’t seen her since, but we have not given up.
To make a long and panicked story short, we loaded up what was essential, abandoned the rest, and drove out to take shelter at Odinshof. We stayed there two nights before getting the all-clear signal. But our difficulties were far from over. Now we had to carry all our things back – and put them back where they belonged.
That’s still not completed. And there are irreplaceable things we haven’t even found yet.
To make things worse, reassembling and our computers and restoring files was much more complicated than we thought it would be. We ended up making some changes that will serve us well in the long run – but this has taken a couple of weeks. And I am still learning how the updates work. I am not yet able to access all my various platforms or post to them. Until an hour ago that applied to accessing this website, too. What this means is that my ability to carry out my life mission – namely, bringing about specific spiritual and social changes in America and in the world at large – has been completely sidelined for a couple of weeks. This forced inaction has been harder for me than for anything else – I was born to fight this fight! The very act of composing this update for you is the most rewarding thing I have done in many days.
The good side? I was made aware of just how inadequate my preparations had been. Having a list of things to grab is not enough. Consider not only what to take, and in what order, but also their volume and weight. Be prepared for stress, indecision, and confusion. Another benefit was realizing just how confused and inconsistent the storage in my computer was – and how long it had been since I had installed more recent versions of my software!
Bottom line on this part of my message: Up your prepping game! We will certainly be doing so!
About that covid thing – I, and by extension, Sheila, were exposed to the disease. We were put on quarantine, creating another major interruption of our lives…But yesterday we were tested, and we’re fine!
Gradually, our lives resume. I sincerely regret my inability to post to this site, not to mention the many other places I try to influence.
The fight, and our lives, continue!
