Good Morning Friends
As some of you know I have succeeded in making and actually getting posted a BLOG!! Yea! At my age just attempting something like that is, well we will use the word "daunting". Another term for it is totally confusing, above my pay grade, or just about impossible!
After many tries, swearing to never attempt something like this again and beating my head against the wall to the point that it became not fun anymore I finally SUCCEEDED! I am now posting at an aptly named site called "Oldguyblog.com". It will have many of my house sitting stories but will tend toward stories and rants about simply getting OLD. I do hope that you all can join me there.
As to a house sitting story I thought I might tell you a bit of a frightening one today.
Again back in Arizona! On our first house sit for these wonderful people we arrived just in time to experience one of the many forest fires that occur in that area yearly. It is a beautiful country but it is also dry and tender in the summer. As I have mentioned previously they experience back there a "monsoon" season. During this time of year they have rain that a Seattlite can't really comprehend. Along with that rain there is thunder and much lightening. Often times this lightening can and will cause the forests to catch on fire.
Our home owners briefed us on what was going on and told us that if the fires got threateningly close to their area we were to hitch up their pickup to their motor home, throw the pets in and get far away from there! We were briefed on how to do this and were ready to go if the need should arise.
Thankfully for us and their home and neighborhood the fires didn't get close enough to cause us worry. However that year was a devastating tragedy for Prescott and the fire crews. That same fire saw 19 of their "Hot Shot" fire crewmen get caught in an impossible situation. All 19 died in the fire. This was just around the 4th of July and so the entire town held a memorial for their own.
Marily and I just recently watched a movie called "Only the Brave" which did an excellent job of telling the town's story.
I wanted to relate that story today to honor all of those brave men and the thousands like them who put their lives on the line for us. Both firemen and policemen are the true heroes!