Peter

Life in Santa Rosa is pretty surreal as people attempt to return to a "normal" schedule. 20% of the town's doctors have lost their homes. A big truck got stuck under a tree on Highway 12, closing the eastbound lane. Firetrucks from many different counties can still be seen as firefighters continue to strive for total containment, but they are starting to be replaced by flatbed trucks carrying melted cars and dump trucks full of blackened twisted debris. EPA teams are beginning a survey of every one of the 6,700 sites of homes reduced to ash for toxic residue. Benefit concerts are being organized. 17,000 people and businesses have donated over $11million to the North Bay Fire Relief Fund. Many people have displaced families living with them. 

The schools are still closed as EPA mandated environmental clean up is completed. People are distracted, distraught and depressed. Many are working tirelessly to prepare meals, to gather clothing, toilet paper, diapers toothbrushes, shoes and all the items that we take for granted, but that the thousands of people who have lost everything need. A woman in Healdsburg is organizing a donated warehouse full of household goods and clothing for anybody who needs it. A group of chefs have organized a kitchen at the junior college and are cooking gourmet comfort food for thousands. 

I drove down to Flying Goat to meet my friend Nancy after class this morning, only to find the street blocked by police. A quick glance revealed one car on top of another one. The women in Flying Goat said it was the result of an altercation over drugs, many pounds of which were found in one of the vehicles...

Peter and I have finally gotten back to his college essays. OilMan's new barbecue arrived as we were finishing up the one on 'leadership' or was it the one on how he looks for patterns in things in order to explain them?...anyway the barbecue was ordered before the fire and was held somewhere until it could be delivered. It weighs a ton, but the guy who delivered it said he 'wasn't allowed' to carry it anywhere, so Peter took the lead and helped us get it up  eight steps, and was able to see the patterns in putting it together with OilMan....