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Sunday, August 31. 2008

Home

This will be my last post here for a week, maybe less. On Sunday, August 31, I’ll be moving.

Back to an area quite close to the western edge of where the fires struck last year. Natural disasters are a part of everyone’s life, regardless of the region. In Wisconsin, it’s sub-zero temperatures, blizzards and tornadoes. Here in California it’s earthquakes and wild fires. But if you like where you live, the tribulations aren’t going to send you away.

We may cry some, or a lot, get depressed and maybe even suffer from Post Traumatic Stress. But the idea of leaving our home, whether it’s the place we were born and raised, or the place we adopt as our home is just unthinkable. For many of us, the grass never looks greener on the other side.
 Well, I do often think of living on the Big Island of Hawaii, pretty much for the snorkeling opportunities!

Wild fires are a lot scarier for me than earthquakes, mainly because it’s likely we’re gonna see one, at least close by, every year. My dear friend, Miss March, lives quite a ways north of here in the beautiful shadow of Mount Shasta. She’s been dealing with smoke from the various wildfires that have consumed her part of the state. At one point this summer there was as many as 400 fires in California, over 100 in her part of the state.

It’s the smoke that’s the worst. You can see it; the thicker it is the darker orange the sunlight appears. But you’re usually unaware you’re collecting the particles in your lungs until you feel queasy, light-headed and have trouble breathing. You buy those cheesy paper masks and start to wear them religiously, only to find out they don’t work. You feel helpless and people, with good intentions, suggest you leave your home, even just temporarily.

Who can afford to pick up and leave — indefinitely — during wildfires? Most of us cannot and most of us don’t want to leave. So, we endure and if we have to evacuate, we bundle up some of our most precious belongings and some clothes and head wherever it is the authorities tell us to go. And most of us return.

Saturday I was at Mission Bay and Mission and Pacific Beaches, pedaling the Trusty Trek at a leisurely pace, stopping here and there to dip into the late summer waters of Mission Beach and the Pacific Ocean. How bad can life be when a man can spend an afternoon for that kind of enjoyment?

Had I moved to another state, one where family resides, it would have been great, having family around for holidays and such, but I’d be checking the weather channel, online and on television, looking at the balmy temperatures and thinking about the Ocean and all the little places I’ve come to know and love.

So, I think of the residents who call the Gulf Coast their home. As we read this they are still evacuating before Hurricane Gustav makes landfall. Most likely Gustav will hit pretty much where Katrina did three years ago. They’ve barely got a start on the reconstruction and now they’re gonna be hit with another category three (or higher) hurricane.

Some of New Orleans’ residents haven’t returned since Katrina hit. Some will never return. But most either will return or at least hope to return and depending on how bad Gustav hits the coast, maybe a small number will say “Enough” and never return, as some did after Katrina.

It’s easy to understand why they hate leaving and wait until the last moment to evacuate. It’s home.

When I return, Gustav will have come and gone and hopefully, we will be spared any wildfires this season. We had a slight sprinkle of rain this morning, and that was encouraging, but it got sunny about the same time the Trusty Trek and I got off the #8 bus on West Mission Bay Dr. at Mission Blvd. That was welcome too.

It’s summer in San Diego after all and “California Girls” is playing on the iPod; and Mission and Pacific Beaches are filled with California Girls, whether they’re residents or just visiting for a little summer vacation.

Why would I live anywhere else?

Posted by Tim Forkes in Life at 00:01 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

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