the id, the ego, & the single misfiring brain cell

As of today (day 5) of "the most destructive fire in Colorado history": 

Size of burn area: 15,500 acres (24-25 square miles), 45% contained

Number of homes completely destroyed: 479*, damaged: 17

* 480, as of 5pm.

We're watching the town hall meeting, live, from Palmer Ridge High School. As of Monday, we will be able to go downtown and get passes to get back home. We won't be able to use them yet; that date has yet to be determined, but when it is, we want to have our passes already so we can get home and start trying to de-stink the house.*

* You think I'd have learned my lesson about leaving food in a freezer without electricity for a week or more. Ugh. 

* Update: Mich suggested I check the Mountain View Electric website for outage information. If I'm reading it right, our electricity is back on. Whew. 

Of course, I'm assuming we'll still have a house. And if we do--and let me make this perfectly clear--I am not complaining that our house might stink. I do have perspective. 

(I can't work out how to embed the photos what with the upgraded "new and improved" software, so you'll just have to scroll up to see what I'm talking about.)

You see that next-to-last photo of the burn area? That's for perspective. Now...if you look in the upper right corner where those two fingers of fire have reached over Hodgen, you'll see the bit I blew up in the last photo. If you look about 1 mile to the northwest of that area, you'll know right where our little pad is sitting. Right in the line of fire. So to speak. 

Perspective I got. 

The wind has been southeast with few deviations since this thing began Tuesday afternoon, when we packed out. We're staying with Chris in town, along with Coffee (and Chris' two dogs) and the four cats. It's a good thing we all like each other....

A friend of mine is a deputy sheriff in El Paso County, and she cruises by to check our house once or twice a day. The county has teamed with the National Guard (and some active duty military) to ensure tight security for the entire evacuated area, and we locked our place up well before we left, but it's great to have that daily reassurance that everything's still ok. 

Only two homes north of Hodgen have been destroyed (and when I say "destroyed," well...look at the pictures I provided; in some cases, the authorities can hardly even tell there was a house there at all). I mark that up to firefighter efforts and to the fact that most of the people through there do excellent fire mitigation. 

We had not done any fire mitigation until the Waldo Canyon Fire last year, after which you happily laid out about three grand to have some serious tree chopping and trimming done around the place (so far, they've done three acres surrounding the house). So...*whew*. That alone reassures me that even if the fire comes through our place, the authorities will more than likely be able to save the house. But also? our pad is up on a little hill away from most of the trees, and it is sided with Hardieboard, a cement composite designed to be fire-retardent. Unless a crown fire comes through, I think our home is safe. 

I'm not in a big hurry to get back, though. It's a mess out there. We took all of our pets and medications and enough clothing to make it through. We took most of the Turkish carpets (of course! Duh!), as well as birth certificates, marriage certificate, social security cards and credit cards and cash and pictures. And computers, cameras, tablets, phones, charging cords. 

I'm not looking forward to the hassle of getting through the checkpoints, frankly. It's going to be just as much of a nightmare after we get back as it is now--just a different channel. 

Meanwhile, though...we're all fine. It's hard to focus on anything else. Please bear with us. 

Y'all be excellent to one another.

d