Still Burning...

Record temperatures, and the High Park fire is still raging. It's at 85,000 acres, only about 55% contained as of today, and about 250 homes destroyed. They think it will be the end of July before it's contained, and that's an estimate.

Depending on what the weather gods throw at us between now and then, who knows. An area west of Colorado Springs is burning up, and it seems like fires are happening everywhere. Estes Park had a fire the other day. And south of Salt Lake City, too. And others...I'm just mentioning the ones where I know people who have evacuated.

We still have off and on smoke in town. You never know what each hour will be like, as the wind shifts. Sometimes the air is clear, other times you're choking on ash.

Considering all that's happened, with almost no rain, low humidity, record temperatures, and the number of homes in the path of the fire, the firefighters have done an amazing job. It's a job in hell, and I am in awe of what they do. Why do we pay CEOs so damn much money?

Here in town we just watch the horizon and the sky. Last night we got a miraculous, but short, rainstorm. Anything is good. I was hoping for it again tonight but the clouds don't seem to be as promising.

We've all but given up on watering the yard. The grass is pretty much dead. We do have some flowers, our tomatoes, cilantro and raspberries that are all doing fairly well, but I don't have very high expectations for anything growing here this year. That's okay. We have our house, it's intact and we're not in the path of the fire. We consider ourselves very fortunate.

Last night I was walking to the store near our house and I was thinking about it not feeling too bad outside, and then I heard some people bitching miserably about the heat, and I thought about how good it is to be heat trained. Try blowing a hair dryer in your face, I thought.





The girls have not been thrilled with the hot weather. I take them for short little walks morning and evening but it's still so hot that a half mile is about all they want to do. Same with me. I have been out on the bike, but just to spin. I figure after this week I'll give the old legs a try again at running and maybe I can get the full month of July in for training. No rush. I'm off to Badwater in the middle of the month, and after that I'll get serious about running again.



So today was my work hangover day, a Monday, following my work weekend. It was pretty slow at work, busy all morning but then things dropped off in the afternoons. I had appropriate plans for my work hangover Monday though, a date with GI Joe, of sorts.

Actually it was Dennis who had the date. I was the responsible adult. Dennis turned 50 last August, and is about to turn 51, and I've been nagging him to get his colonoscopy before he turns 51. So he did it today. I got to be the driver. He told me he didn't care if I blogged about it, as long as I didn't post any graphic pictures. Ha!


And I was the waiter, too. As in, waiting in the waiting room. The prep is the worst part, and he had to drink three bottles of Mag Citrate (pictured) in the 16 hours or so before the procedure. It works. He slept downstairs so he wouldn't keep me up with his frequent trips to the bathroom. The joy...

Anyway we went to see GI Joe, the doctor whose name is not actually Joe, but we went to the surgery center and I hung out with Dennis as they prepped him and started his IV, and then I waited in the waiting room until he was done. Everything is good. He's off the hook for a long time as long as nothing weird happens.

I told him I would go as soon as I turn 50 and get it over with. A year and 9 months, that's how long they have to figure out a completely noninvasive way to screen for colon cancer so I don't have to do it! Chop, chop!

Afterwards Dennis was starving so we went to the Silver Grill and he demolished some pancakes and a cinnamon roll, they are huge. Then we came home so he could sleep it off and I went for a bike ride in the lovely 102 degree afternoon. The smoke was not bad today in town.

I will be on the bike for the next few days, then I have a string of work days coming up from Thursday to Saturday, then I work the July 4th holiday. Weird schedule for me again, but it really doesn't matter. I'm highly unmotivated to do most of the things I need to do outside of running, so I might as well work and stay out of trouble.

By this time in the summer I'm usually looking forward to fall. This year especially, it can't come soon enough. How about some snow on July 4th?

Sounds good to me.