Five Simple Things (August 21)

Hello.

This week has been a doozy of a week. We have had horrible winds and lightning storms and along with that an outbreak of a lot of random fires. Eight, including the one last week, to be exact. There's the Frog Fire, Green Ridge Fire, Indian Creek Fire, P-515 Fire, Lionshead Fire, Beachie Creek Fire, White River Fire, and the Laurel Fire. The two I am most concerned about are the Lionshead and Beachie Creek fires. They are closer to us than the others and causing a lot of issues lately for wildland firefighters. I hope they are able to get them contained before too long. Most of these fires were started by lightning or downed powerlines. The storms we've had here lately are not normal. First, it was the thunderstorm that hit and a lot of lightning bursts hit dry grass and sparked fires, then the winds we had a few days in a row pushed the fires even more. Fire officials say they have never seen a wildfire move as fast as some of these have, and that's alarming to me. The sky here is smoky, and I will post a blog post soon of more photos of the week and throughout the wildfire season here. This is the worst I've ever seen it. It's scary. That aside, still seeing the numbers with the pandemic are heartbreaking. This year has been intense. Here are five things this week.

1. This Kitty.

Eleven has had some issues breathing this week and we all have had quite a difficult time keeping the air quality inside the house cleaner than the outside air. But, she's always had issues breathing, so this week has really been rough on her. Hardy seems to be handling it a bit better than Eleven, but we are keeping an eye on both of them. We keep fans going and the air conditioner off, for the most part, but it's still smoky inside, especially during the day. Hopefully, it gets better before it gets worse.

2. This Laptop.

We've been busy going through things for the past two weeks and getting rid of nonessentials. I told Jeff the other day that this couldn't have come at a better time because now I know what we have and if we have to leave the area because of the fire, I will know exactly what to grab. My school laptop is definitely one of those items to grab. I have thought about writing up an emergency fire evacuation post on my blog about what to do, what to grab, and what to leave behind in the case of wildfire evacuations, but I think that will be something that comes much later. My anxiety is a wreck right now, but authorities assure us that we will get the notification to leave way before the fire gets to us. One of those fires is burning about 30 minutes from us, so I hope they are right.

3. These Miles.

I was able to do the same trek this week and ended up meeting up with Jeff on his way home, each time. It wasn't quite a mile, but it was enough. The air quality right now makes it so hard to breathe. It would be nice to get some heavy rainfall to not only help the fires, but also help take some of this smoke out of the air.

4. This Street.

This street sign always makes me laugh. It's in Multnomah, Oregon, and the next street is Craven Street. They just make me chuckle every time I see them.

5. This Selfcare.

A hot bath is my normal go-to when my anxiety is at a level that I can't seem to control. It's always been my "comfort," so to speak. But, Sundays are my selfcare days. I normally treat Sundays as my "spa days" and take care of my skin, my face, and my stress levels from the week before. We also have a large meal at the table and all of us talk about our past week, the week coming, what we can change, and how we can make the coming week better and more simplified. It's helped a great deal with being able to tackle the coming week without any regrets, or feeling overwhelmed. I will definitely be adding this hot bath combo to my selfcare Sundays.

Positive affirmations this week: "If you could tell someone reading your blog five things what would they be?"

1. Stay hydrated.

2. Don't be a racist.

3. Wash your hands.

4. Wear a mask.

5. Love yourself.

Have a nice weekend.