The Last of the Summer Flowers

We’re having a barbecue this evening for all the people, mostly neighbors, who kept in touch with each other while we were evacuated. I joke that I never saw so many people in their underwear, but it is true as we pounded on doors and got people out of bed that morning. Many of us had been awake earlier when the gale force wind gusts were blowing, realized the power was out, smelled smoke and went back to sleep. This was the case for us, and has been true for many of the people I have talked with since. It seems hard to believe in one way but in another, the scale of the whole disaster was beyond imagination. We’re used to forest fires and to smelling smoke.

We decided that since the unseasonably warm weather is continuing, we would take advantage of it and gather everyone together in someplace a little bit more congenial than a supermarket parking lot at 4am. I’m sure we will all have more stories to tell and more opinions to share, but having been scattered everywhere, it seemed like the right moment to get together, have a good time and maybe, just maybe talk about something else as well.

OilMan has a new barbecue which was being held somewhere until the evacuation was lifted. It was delivered on Wednesday and this seemed like the perfect moment to inaugurate it. I went up and picked most of the few flowers remaining in the garden. They’re a bit the worse for wear, but seemed perfect for the occasion.

Next we get our new front door. There was plenty of black humor about how ironic it would be if we had no house, but a brand new front door. How incredibly lucky we are to be getting it for an untouched house....