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To say that it’s been a crazy week would be the understatement of the year…maybe the decade.

My email inbox started filling up on Tuesday with short notices from so many friends who were being evacuated and others on pre-evac. Cathy and I were watching the twice-daily fire briefings on KKTV which has suspended commercials and is covering the fire 24/7. I get the best info from Twitter – 15-20 minutes before the TV. We watched the fire roar down Queen’s Canyon behind the incident commander’s 4 p.m. briefing fearing the worst. Leslie and Allan brought some of their valuables to our house and checked into a hotel downtown when they were evacuated. The MG Club couldn’t reach Bob and Meg Rich or Susie and Rick Mills. The Macintosh Club’s president and three of our Board members fled their homes with little notice.

By Wednesday/Thursday, 32,500 people had been evacuated. The Flying W Ranch is GONE – burned to the ground. Chuck and Rita were notified their home was destroyed. Then we heard about Sarah Quals and Mike the owner of Rick’s Nursery. Lots more are presumed gone, but the fire is still raging, so they don’t know for sure.

When they pre-evacuated Pleasant Valley and Holland Park, we started packing up our small boxes of valuables so we’d be ready if the embers jumped I-25 and came roaring down Monument Valley Park. Chris and Doug in their new house in Woodland Park only a week are packed up and ready. They have evacuated everyone on the other side of their street!

Today, things have started to calm down a little. The weather is cooperating and the fire is about 40% contained. Rita saw a photo of her house. The lawn is green, the trees are standing as are her two white garage doors and their frame. EVERYTHING else is gray ash and cinders in the basement surrounded by their cement foundation. Only one house on her block survived. Chuck is in the hospital maybe with stress problems related to the fire. Things are really sad. Sarah was out of town at her mother’s funeral when her new home in Mountain Shadows burned. She hadn’t even unpacked yet.

Here are links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBA7eHY022k&sns=em   spectacular time-lapse movie of the first 4+ days of the fire.

http://radiocoloradocollege.org/2012/07/a-digital-fly-over-of-the-waldo-canyon-fire/  digital flyover showing the perimeter of the fire.

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/07/colorado-wildfires-the-aftermath/100330/#

http://radiocoloradocollege.org/2012/07/in-the-cockpit/

http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2012/06/27/colorado-wildfires-waldo-canyon-fire-colorado-springs/5732/#more-5732   the most graphic shots from Tuesday.

The plumes are frightening as the fire finds fresh fuel and winds to fan it. The fire has grown so far north and south that my widest setting on my big lens no longer covers the fire zone.

The second day of the Waldo Canyon fire saw it grow in all proportions. By the numbers:

3600 acres burned

13,542 people evacuated

0% contained

No structures or people hurt

Giant attempts at containment, but only lucky wind direction changes have made any difference.

The big announcements today:

U.S. Hwy 24 closed in both directions from 31st St. to Crystola

Manitou Springs 6000 residents evacuated as well as Crystal Park, Chipita Park, Green Mountain Falls, Cascade and Cedar Ridge.

At least twice the flames crested the ridge behind Cedar Ridge only to change direction because of the wind, slurry bombers and continuous 400 gallon water drops by helicopter. Those folks owe the firefighting teams BIG TIME!

By end of day, Manitou residents were allowed back in, but Woodland Park was on standby for evacuation. Tomorrow we get two more tankers and the Feds take over administration.

Two other fires; one at Elbert and another at Rainbow Falls broke out.

These are photos I took from the park next door. You can see Garden of the Gods in the middle ground.

The fire started about noon in Waldo Canyon and basically followed the prevailing winds north and east. There is great concern that it will jump the ridge and burn down Williams Canyon into Manitou. However, the mandatory evacuations have been on Cedar Ridge above Garden of the Gods and west of 30th by the Flying W and towards Mountain Shadows. Scary business.

I sat vigil with a middle-aged woman who was dying alone this morning. Mentally challenged and holding her twin baby dolls, she alternated between flailing and sleeping, maybe unaware at this point that she was about to leave the animate world and join her inanimate dolls.

Wynken, Blynken and Nod

Another way to look at it is “mono no aware” a Japanese phrase which describes a wistfulness about the transience of things (this I stole from a Roger Ebert film review…).

Greg Kelley and I went to Denver either to go further north to the Wildlife Sanctuary south of Greeley or look for photos around the Cherry Creek Mall. We did neither and ended up downtown at the Denver Art Museum which was closed on Monday!

There were plenty of photos to be had outside the Daniel Libeskind wild architecture, however, we ended up across the street at the Byers-Evans House Musuem taking a tour with a guide named Loretta (major coincidence – my deceased step-mom’s name was Loretta and she was a docent in this very museum!).

We stopped at Washington Park for photos, and a wave of nostalgia overcame me. I couldn’t stop telling Greg about growing up in this park (we lived one block away on Gilpin St. for all but two of my first 13 years). I wanted to show Greg where I ‘fished’ for crawdads with bacon and string, and sure enough, there were kids doing the same thing! Then, I wanted to show him the Wynken, Blynken and Nod statue, but couldn’t find it. We asked several walkers/runners, but no one had ever heard of it. Finally, an older gent pointed to the other side of the sports pavilion. There it was, maybe a little smaller than I remembered, right next to the house where Eugene Field lived when he wrote the poem. http://www3.amherst.edu/~rjyanco94/literature/eugenefield/poems/poemsofchildhood/wynkenblynkenandnod.html The house had been converted into a branch library when I was a kid, and I had to tell Greg about the summer I read every Nancy Drew book in the Denver Public Library in one summer.

What a “Roots” trip!

We ate a fabulous meal at Racines and then had coffee and a brief stop at Mike’s Camera in Park Meadows Mall on the way home. Very satisfying. I hope I didn’t bore Greg to tears with my tales.

Our calendars seem filled to capacity, but there is always time to help someone out of a tight spot. Yesterday, Patty Weed’s WiFi crashed, then her backup program external drive failed, and Comcast couldn’t/wouldn’t help her. I made a couple of house calls and ended up giving her the small drive Gene gave to me last year. It’s been a bacon saver a couple of times.

All of Patty’s gear was purchased from Voelker in 2004, so just like my water pump, that’s a lot of service delivered. I think she is going to get an iPad AND a new MacBook Pro. Lucky lady. I hope things will last until July.

We had a nice meeting with the Rowan’s last night and planned the celebration ceremony for Dubois. Lots of folks are really looking forward to that trip!

On our trip to Winter Park last year, the “Check Engine” light came on as we were coming home. I pulled over, checked the oil and belts, etc. and finally called Liberty Toyota to get some advice. Ray, my ‘service adviser’ suggested I unscrew and re-screw the gas cap making sure it was VERY tight. Voila! The engine light went off, and we came home trouble free.

Since then, the “Check Engine” light has come on many times. Usually after a change in conditions…like rain or high temperatures or just because it felt like it! The gas cap trick usually worked, but the number of occurrences of ‘idiot light’ became more frequent.

So Friday, along with the oil change, I asked them to take a look at the gas cap and see if I needed a new one.

Nope, my gas cap was fine. What I needed was a $1000 water pump replacement!

I swallowed hard…considered getting a second (cheaper) opinion, but then realized I’d driven 95,000 absolutely trouble-free miles in this car. I think the thing that cemented the deal was the vision I had of climbing Hoosier Pass on Saturday and climbing Loveland Pass on Sunday and dropping my cooling system in either location and the cost of that tow and subsequent repair and delay and…..

Our trip to see the Koepke’s in Breckenridge went very smoothly, both automotively, photographically, socially and every other way. Gerry is always a good traveler, and I think we all had a great time.

It’s hard to believe that this pristine oasis for plants and animals exists about six blocks west of the seediest section of south Nevada Ave. It’s a private family residence owned by the Loo family who rent/offer it occasionally to non-profit groups to hold thank-you events like the one given by the Colorado Springs Dance Theater folks tonight. The landscaping and beautiful plantings are spectacular, but who would have guessed that a playful bear and a couple of huge birds would crash the party just when my camera was looking for something to record besides old folks drinking Two Rivers Wine and swooning over Cambozola cheese?

The usual suspects, Beth Carlson, Patti Boles and the Dance Theater Board put on the event to thank supporters of dance in Colorado Springs. We were invited because we hosted some of the dancers from the SLC troup of Ballet West II.

It was perfect weather, especially after the foot of hail some of the organizers got last night. LOTS of roof and car and flood damage around town, but despite four separate hail storms, we suffered very little damage in our neighborhood.

Meg, Ben and Siri at the celebration

Dr. Everett, the senior, introduces Dr. Everett, the younger.

Carrie Harrington leads an awesome wildflower walk.

Such a season for roses!

I got a tad behind again in my reporting, but plan to catch everyone up this morning as Mark finishes laying our new floor in the basement. There was great friction with Lumber Liquidators about when the wood for our floor would be available. They stalled, and lied and shifted blame all they could until a younger clerk solved the dilemma with a phone call. Our lumber was in Denver the whole month! I drove up Friday in an enormous traffic jam and delivered it myself! The stairs and floor are beautiful.

We got one very nice rain shower, too, which has prompted all the green children to sing out and look extremely beautiful.

Cathy persuaded me to go along on a Wildflower walk in Monument Valley Park, and it really was spectacular. It’s like a road trip to Wyoming when you’re sure there is nothing to see, and once your eyes become accustomed to the landscape, you see all kinds of new things!

Tuesday the ‘good old boys’ had coffee in the recently converted detail garage. It is now a very eclectic coffee emporium called STIR run by a very nice family. Cathy had two therapies and I did more work on the now gold and diamond encrusted sprinkler system.

Wednesday was a wild one involving a lot of logistical juggling to accomplish it all, and of course meant pulling friends and neighbors in on the various schemes.

We had a Denver delivery scheduled for 9:15 from Crate and Barrel for our new deck furniture, but I had a Mohs surgery scheduled for 10 a.m. for a squamous cell carcinoma, and Cath had another therapy at 10:30. We weren’t sure I would be able to drive depending how vigorous the surgeon cut, so Gerry was pressed into chauffeur service for me and two of the neighbors were on the lookout for Crate & Barrel in case they were late…and they were. The hand is healing fast and all’s well.

One of the big events was celebrating Ben Everett’s graduation from med school and his engagement to be married next year. Siri and Ralph invited lots of friends from the neighborhood who had influenced Ben’s success (we got to go because of our wonderful daughters who babysat the Everett kids for may years. Meredith continued her support of Ben all the way through med school at Columbia). Ben’s brother Nathaniel had just flown in from Beirut and Ben’s retired pediatrician administered the Hippocratic Oath, which I’d never heard in it’s long form. Yikes! I could only find pieces of the whole version on the Internet this doctor delivered making Ben repeat verbatim all words except the ones about abortion in front of family and friends. Very interesting.

Ben has really distinguished himself and will be dividing his residency in psychiatry between NYU and Bellevue Hospitals! In addition, he has converted to Judaism and is marrying a lovely young lady who will soon graduate from med school herself!

Now, this is a centerpiece!

The happy neighbors + one.

The great calf competition.

This holiday weekend plays out so differently depending on who you are and what are your circumstances. Certainly, some feel compelled to visit the graves of loved ones, maybe devote quiet time or prayer remembering those who have died. Some focus on auto racing or other sports, either as participants or spectators. Some use it as a great excuse to stay drunk for longer than the normal weekend. Most, I suspect, weather permitting use the long weekend to get outdoors, relax, maybe catch up on projects and enjoy themselves.

We’re clearly with the majority here…which is not to say that we didn’t give any thought to those who have died…or even to the subject of death. (I listened to Episode #93 of This American Life which was broadcast on Valentine’s Day 1998 which begins with a love letter from an extremely angry husband to his sleeping wife and ends with the most personal and graphic poems written by a husband to and about his wife who has just died. I highly recommend you listen to this broadcast if you have a spare hour. Some of you know of my intention to listen to all 450-some hours of this program. I am 94 hours into my goal and am only up to 1998).

So, the weekend began with high wind warnings. I got chicken and pulled down the shade sails, cancelled the gardeners until this morning and thought about hunkering down, but the projects kept presenting themselves: I installed one of the new oak handrails, cut the other one to make a safer descent and did some more planting.

Charlie and Karen Goodell, the campers, invited Sylvia and Jeremy and Pat, one of Karen’s friends, over for brats and burgs yesterday. It was very low-key and most enjoyable to just enjoy the great weather, drink a little wine, eat great food and visit in a MOST normal, neighborly way. Oh, there was the great “my calves are more developed that yours are” contest which later led to a “TT” discussion (remind me to tell you about that AMAZING story sometime). The Goodells were great hosts, and we were somewhat sad to leave only to come home and reconcile the checkbook which ended up with a protracted call to American Express and different plans for future online bill payment.

The 50-60 mph winds revisited last night after I’d put the sails up again, but no damage was noted when we got up this morning.