We spoke to one of our friends that lost their home this past week and they are not sure of exactly where to begin the next step. They keep having to tell themselves -- "Oh that, it was lost in the fire". And then they have to shake their head and find an alternative solution to whatever they were referring to . . .
Most of the flames in the four main fires are gone but the remains of the contents of almost 6000 homes are sitting in piles around the North Bay. Over 200 square miles have been burned and there are still some fires burning in places like Santa Cruz.
Just yesterday and today inhabitants of burned homes have been let into their neighborhoods to sift through the ashes and maybe recover something of their memories. We have seen some really emotional responses to some of what has been found.
We, in our family, are still with packed suitcases in the car ready to go. Today we will slowly begin the process of unloading the car and reorganizing our closets and other living areas, so thankful that we still have all of that "stuff" AND a place to put it.
We can only imagine the horribleness of what so many of our fellow residents of Sonoma County are going through during this time.
We have been totally distracted from so many things this week. Our relief for it being "over" is starting to set. There is some optimism again in our everyday thought. The extremely good news that came midst the worrying about fire, that of finally breaching the HILES brick wall, crept into my thinking ever since I talked with Lora and she shared the wonderful news of "life" before John Hiles Sr.
Now, the dilemma of "what's in a name?" has my mind whirling with a new way of looking at the family tree. Early on I pretty much focused only on references to names that were spelled HILES. Now, for sure I have to accept many other spellings and am very happy to do so.
I always knew that there were numerous ways to spell our surname and now I have to reconcile that
even in some families our name was spelled differently. I look forward to opening up the tree so that the numerous accepted ways to spell our name can be shown.
Since it looks as though our family indeed comes from Germany, the more English spelling of HILES gives way to some more Germanic spellings. But the DNA points to the same people no matter how they spell the names.
So, life goes on with all the issues and concerns that were present before the fire scare. We found ourselves glued to multiple TV newscasts for any update to our particular geographical location.
We tried not to breathe the ever-present smoke and stayed inside as much as possible.
We kept the phone next to our bed (with the ringer on) to be sure and receive any evacuation recommendations. AND we reexamined the use of cell phones for other than emergency purposes when our land-lines and Internet went out.
Lastly, in the coming week besides digging into the HILES discovery, we'll try to re-establish some basic routineness in our everyday lives by enjoying the World Series:
The World Series will begin next Tuesday (also my brother's 83rd birthday) and it will be played in Los Angeles to start. I have to say that I was rooting for the Cubs to beat the Dodgers, but I do like the Dodgers as well.
I was born and raised for 19 years in the Chicago area and so the Cubs will always have a special interest for me. But, the next 19 years I lived in the Los Angeles area and loved the Dodgers. So I will be rooting for them when they play either the Yankees or the Astros.
I will hopefully be able to use the World Series for the diversion from everyday life that it usually has been in the past. It would be disheartening if there were any hint of the controversy such as the NFL has currently.
That's a bit of our week. See you all "in a few"!
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