Life Goes On....*

....however erratically.
The dawn comes every day revealing a blue/cloudy/smoky/windy/calm sky.
The grocery store is open/closed/half stocked/almost empty.
Out of 20 advisories I've recieved to date:
   16 of them have said a 'ps ps' (public safety power shutoff) may be coming to our address. None of them say when
   10 of them have contained a 13 character 'code' one must remember in order to find out if we are affected. Only one of those codes has actually opened anything which turned out to be the same message again but without the 13 characters..
   1 of them said our address would not be impacted.
   It was.
Now we delete all messages as soon as they come in.
Except for the NIXLE alerts which give updates on the fires 
   burning near us. 
    Except for the one that was practically across the street.That alert came from a friend who lives across the valley. 
   Or the one from my brother in San Diego telling me about the Kincaid fire in Geyserville*.
   The next power shutoff  'might' happen Saturday when 'the highest winds of the season' are predicted.

The reason we are suffering through these power shutoffs is to 'keep people safe'. Yet the Kincaid fire in Geyserville, which has already burned down 45 homes and structures appears to have been started by defective PG&E equipment which should have been turned off but wasn't.
   
In a strictly Sonoma County sort of way, the evacuees from the fire in Geyserville are eating well. Local chefs have become a new group of first responders. Justin Valette, and three of his three star chefs are preparing food and taking it to the evacuation center. Celebrity chefs Guy Fieri and Jose Andres rolled up to to the Cal Fire command center at the Sonoma County fairgrounds in Santa Rosa in their food truck to feed first responders...In Sonoma county, if your house burns down these gourmet chefs and many others will feed you.

In a truly ironic sort of way, for the first time in history, the vineyards of the famous Alexander Valley are burning, and firefighters are having to use generators to pump water from wells that have had their power turned off. 

Most cabernet grapes haven't been harvested yet and the houses of 85 workers from one winery have burned down. Others will be working night and day to harvest the rest and hope they don't suffer from smoke taint.

I should tell them about prized single malt  scotches like peaty, smoky  Lagavulin or Laphroaig. Maybe it could become thing with wine. I'm afraid it won't be a rare vintage though....

*The main picture is some pumpkins OilMan brought home from the market. They didn't have any bread or milk or frozen food because they had already loaded those onto vendor's refrigerated trucks parked in the parking lot, but they had LOTS of pumpkins. The two little lumpy ones are the mystery ones that appeared in our garden uninvited.

the extra is a picture from our local newspaper of a 'fire whirl' whipping through dry brush in high wind.