Ha...you all were probably wondering, and some maybe hoping, if I'd gone to that happy squirrel nuthouse in the sky. We've been in Alaska since mid-June visiting relatives and sightseeing and got home two weeks ago.

Just in time for our annual "Burn Up The Big Sky" festival. This time one of the marshmallow roasting fires is way to close to us and we are on 6 hour evacuation notice. Called the Lolo Creek Complex Fires, two fires converged yesterday afternoon and blew up into one big fire just West of us. So far eight homes have been lost and it doesn't look good for a subdivision just one mile west of us.

We have falling embers landing in our yard and everyone here has their roof sprinklers on. My wife is already on her way to Helena to stay with her cousin and my son, two daughters and I are packing stuff and heading out in about 2 hours......or less if the wind picks up again like yesterday.

There are some neat pics of the fire in todays paper....
www.missoulian.com..... The one on the front page is one mile from our house. Way too scary.

So....I'll be gone for awhile. I'll try to get on my wife's laptop sometime if i make it to Helena. I'll probably just hang around here though, snag some free food and beer and the evacuation center (they do have beer, right????), and watch the fire.

Bob

---

I was wonder about you out there and those campfires.. keep safe my friend.

And leave the marshmallows in the baggy's.. and please share when you can that you and yours are safe.

Direct link to the photos .. I think anyway...

---

Be safe Bob.

---

OK,,,we have a temporary air inversion that has slowed the fires eastward progress and allowed neighbor Chuck and I to survey things and determine that we have time to consume a six pack of Leinenkuegel Dark before it is too late.

It's not a pretty sight right now, with dark black smoke billowing up just behind us, which means that someone else's home has gone up in flames. My kids took everything important out of the house down to the shopping center parking lot, which is blocked off and patrolled by sheriff's deputies, and are coming back to get the dogs and a few more items.

Those of you that live in the mountains know what this is like, Year after year of wondering if your're going to go up in flames. Those of you in the flatlands....take a good look at mountain forest fires and see how fast they can travel. Faster than you can run, and then realize how Mother Nature is going to do what she wants to do.....regardless of all the protection, and government bullshit that abounds around us.

But....I wouldn't trade this life for anything. See ya soon!

Bob

---

That's a wild life, for sure.

Speaking of fires, lightning hit a central power sub-station last night here in the Central Valley of California. It caused a mineral oil fire and basically five towns were without power for multiple hours. I think the estimates were around 500,000 people were without power in the roughly 100 degree heat with some humidity due to a recent "rain". It was interesting. It was borderline chaos in the streets, because several people panicked, for some reason. I got home as soon as possible and cranked up the grill, and cracked a cold one. I was just fine! =d> =d>