October 25, 2007

• Sigh of Relief……

  I seldom watch TV anymore and do not really keep up with the news on a regular basis.  So,  when my Husband called me Monday to tell me there was a fire out of control in San Diego County, I was concerned but not terribly concerned.  I grew up in San Diego and know that San Diego County is about 100 miles from the city San Diego.  My Mom and my two sisters still live in San Diego, CA so to bring myself up to date, I went online to get the news.  Now…..I am starting to get upset and my Husband calls me again to say his radio just announced that Poway is on fire.  My sister Debbie lives in Poway with her family.  This is now the second time her house has been in the pathway of an out of control fire.  Somehow, she has managed to NOT get her house burned down especially since my Mom says her house was on the side of Poway that got burned.  At least, this time we knew where she was since the last fire in 2004, she and her husband had taken a weekend for themselves and did not tell anyone where they had gone.  Actually, her youngest daughter did but was mad at her brother and told him she didn’t know where their Mom was, causing my nephew panic and thus causing concern for all the rest of the family when he called trying to find his Mom.  Bad niece…..bad, bad, bad….this was taking sibling rivalry too far.  There for a while I was really worried for my Mom since she no longer drives and the sister living nearest does not drive either, and at one point my Mom had been told to prepare to get evacuated.  That lasted for about a day before they gave the standdown on evacuting the area notification.  My Mom got packed and now I am curious to exactly what she packed to take with her……and at the same time I wonder what I would have packed if I had been in the same situation.  Since she had no car, she would have been limited to only what she could carry.  Someone mentioned taking pictures of the items that you could not take since there was the real possibility that you might only be coming back to ashes and melted plastic.  This way you would at least have pictures to remember with and cherish.  I do know that I would have packed Alex’s first baby shoes since when I first even thought about what I would have taken, his shoes were my first thought.  My photographs came second since I can not go back into time to replace them.  I would have had to take them out of the albums so that I could get more in my suitcase that way.   Someone mentioned putting your clothes in garbage bags to give more room in the suitcase for sentimental and practical things like documents and bills.  Just thinking of how few of my treasures that I would be able to take, versus all the ones that would be lost to me, is such a sorrowing and shattering thought even to imagine.  It makes me thankful that I do not have to make those decisions and my heart goes out to those that were forced to make those kinds of decisions.  While things can be replaced, those things usually represented memories that were cherished so those particular things can not be truly replaced.  Still, if that is the price you have to pay to be alive…..then is is a small price since Life is worth almost any price.  Almost but not any price since if you can not live with the price you have to pay to stay alive, Life is not worth it.  I would not want to be alive if it was at the expense of the life of one of my children.  I am sure there are other less extreme instances that would make me turn from Life and embrace Death if there were only the two to chose from.  Thankfully, all my family is safe in San Diego and no one had to evacuate so I was spared that anxiety.  It is hard not being able to make sure that everyone was safe and cared for since as the oldest daughter, I feel that it is part of who I am.  By the way, my grandson,  Alexander, turned one year old Wednesday.  Where has the time gone?  He is starting to walk unaided.  Such a beautiful child….and so curious and loving and comical, he is a blessing and a reward.   Neko is thriving too and is also such a joy to me.  I just love babies.  Neko was so good at the dentist office that everyone kept saying that they wished they could return to babyhood since he enjoyed his bottle and fell asleep in my arms so relaxed that he was a picture of contentment.  His Dad, my Joshua, on the other hand, was a hurting turkey since we were waiting in the dentist office for him to get his four wisdom teeth removed.  After we got him home from the dentist office, he had to put ice packs on his cheeks to reduce the swelling.  He wore a hoodie to keep the ice packs in place with the hood so tightly closed that he reminded me of Kenny on South Park.  Soon Jessica will be getting her wisdom teeth removed too since all of us do not have enough room in our mouths for wisdom teeth.  Jen is starting to make arrangements now to get hers removed now that they can see for themselves how painful it is when the teeth impact due to no room to grow.  I have been telling them to get them removed but they had to learn the hard way it seems. 

  • 8:52 pm
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