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We had a scary afternoon in Flagstaff. We heard that the firefighters had a handle on the Schultz Fire, but around 1:00PM a huge plume of smoke roiled above the Dry Lake Hills north of town. It looked like things were out of control.
Photo of Schultz Fire by Dan Stoffel
We all felt quite happy when hearing that it was all due to a planned burnout operation.
The fire is now 40% contained. That is some lovely news!
It’s been crazy in Flagstaff the last few days. Two fires have hit us, coming close enough to cause evacuations. None have hit near where I live, but it does make for a case of the jitters where you pay attention to any alerts to new fires in the area.
The Hardy Fire that started on Saturday is in good shape. The firefighters took care of it enough to have the evacuees affected by that fire able to return home. Now we’re dealing with the Schultz Pass Fire. This thing has grown to 10,000 acres and has caused evacuations in northeastern Flagstaff. One of my co-workers is stuck in a Motel 8 waiting for the all clear to return home.
Good firefighters and lots of support from all around Arizona are helping beat back this fire, but it looks like it will take some time to contain the whole thing.
I’m telling you, it’s just crazy time around here.
We’re expecting 6 to 12 inches of snow tonight. After our 4 feet that fell two weeks ago, I’m not so thrilled about more snow. Luckily, I do not need to drive anywhere tomorrow, so I’m taking my muscle relaxants and ibuprofen and taking it easy.
Yes, my back went out a month ago and it’s now gone into defcon 4 mode. I’m in PAIN. Went to the doctor yesterday and he set me up with medicine. Monday I go back and hope that he can adjust my body to help relieve the hurt, ’cause it sucks trying to bend over and put my socks and shoes on.
So I’m hoping the snow tonight isn’t too heavy. It is a real pain in the back trying to shovel snow.
September is heading out and October coming in. I’m liking it! We’ll get down to below 30 degrees tomorrow night. Now that’s a way to start October.
The landlord has hired painters to paint my place’s exterior. There’s nothing like having the windows and doors covered to make it even darker than my place already is. Lulu kitty and Spencer are freaking out at the activity outside. I’m just happy that the weather is cool today so it’s nice and comfortable sitting inside.
It should be interesting to see the place painted. It’s been looking like a hillbilly shack for way too long.
I went to a Health Care Forum tonight. You’ve heard about all the teabagger mobs that have shut down some of the forums? Nothing like that happenned here. It was calm, quiet, and kind of boring.
Kyrsten Synema, one of the state legislators, conducted the event. She’s on Obama’s Health Care Task Force, so she’s traveling around the state presenting information and answering questions.
Yes, there were people who cheered the comment about our border — if ex-Gov Napolitano had closed it there would be no health care crisis. Yeah, makes no sense to me either. I’m sure that the insurance companies would have cut prices, insured all, and never denied care to anyone as long as that dang border was closed.
Anyway, I can’t report anything exciting. It was informative, but I bet the two bills described will be very different by the time they are combined in the conference committee.
Sure, the last few days have been all about the Arizona Cardinals and their stay here in Flagstaff for practice camp, but other sports are happening too. Tonight it was baseball. But I wasn’t watching the Diamondbacks (well, peripherally maybe). I watched the Baltimore Orioles.
Why would I head to one of the local sports bars, Granny’s Closet, to watch a team that I usually don’t care about? To watch the debut of pitcher Brian Matusz. There’s an Arizona connection. Shoot, there’s a family connection!
My nephews, Brian and Christopher, both played with Matusz at St. Mary’s high school in Phoenix. My brother and sister-in-law, Steve and Mona, hung out on the stands with Matusz’ parents. So when Mona tells me that Brian is coming up from Phoenix and wanted to watch the Orioles game to see Matusz pitch, well, I had to join them.
Matusz’ parents got plenty of camera time as the announcers discussed Matusz’ first major league appearance. Matusz certainly got plenty of time on TV. He pitched five innings and did a decent enough job — 5 strikeouts, 3 walks, 1 run, and the win. He’s now got himself a lovely 1.80 ERA. Nice.
I also enjoyed hanging out with Steve, Mona, and Brian. So it was a lovely evening to conclude my five-day weekend.
I’m enjoying my days off. Made it to the Arizona Cardinals camp twice, hanging out with my brother Steve and his family. It was a lovely time.
My patience for getting autographs is limited so I didn’t do so well at that. This is the closest I got to quarterback Kurt Warner:
Kurt Warner signing autographs
Steve and Mona and the gang stuck around longer and had their patience rewarded. They got Boldin, Hightower, and Larry Fitzgerald’s autographs.
The crowds are crazy. In the past, you could expect a few hundred fans to show up. This time? A few thousand.The fans, mostly from Phoenix, must certainly have enjoyed the cooler weather. Plus the scenery is beautiful:
San Francisco Peaks behind the AZ Cardinals
It’s all about drills and not much real action, but watching these guys makes for a fun time. Will they do as well as last year (my god, a Super Bowl appearance!)? I don’t know, but watching a winning team sure makes a difference.
The road I live on is going through major road construction. It’s an adventure every morning on what barriers I have to get through to get onto the main road from the dirt road that I park on. It hasn’t been pleasant. Shoot, it has sucked.
My mail does not get picked up or dropped off, as the mail carrier has no way to pull up to drop it off. All those ditches and ropes make for a hard time for a little mail vehicle (jeep? truck? cart?).
Even worse, is the lack of garbage pick up. The last two weeks we were ignored. Those big cans are full, especially as the downstairs renters have moved out. They put lots of garbage in those cans while cleaning up. Some bags didn’t get into the can as it they both were full. I called the garbage department and they’re going to try to get the garbage picked up on my stretch of the road (I imagine I’m not the only person dealing with this situation along Lake Mary road) either tomorrow — the regular pick up day — or make a special trip on Friday.
So how does my dog fit into this tale of woe? My kitchen garbage can is packed full. Because Spencer enjoys rooting around in the garbage I keep it under the kitchen sink with a bungee cord holding the doors shut. I have also had to tie up the other side kitchen cabinet doors, as that offers the long way around to the can. Yep, my cat and dog both have opened that and made it to the trash can.
They got into it today. They managed to open the tied up cabinet and sneak into the under-sink area. The bad news, besides the mess and need to clean it all up, is that some cooked chicken bones were in that can. Yikes. I normally empty those out within a day or so, but with no room in the outside cans I’ve waited.
I get to play the “watch Spencer like a hawk” the next few days to make sure the bones don’t mess up his innards. Dang dog.
I just heard a crack of thunder. There’s rain falling. Best of all, the temperature is comfortably below 80 degrees.
Oh, yes, it’s lovely weather we’re having.
It finally felt cool today. The temperature kept creeping up to the mid-80s, which is uncomfortable for me. The inside of my place gets up above the 70s even with windows open and fans blowing.My coconut oil, which is normally solid at room temperature had melted this last week.
Now it’s raining. Oh yes, cool everything off!
It’s a lazy weekend for me. Nothing specific on a To Do list other than write a review of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (overdone and klunky, but great special effects).
I’ve lounged around the place today, but made it out for a nice hike with Spencer. Flagstaff has been hit with lots of rain the last few days, so our hike on rain-soaked trails through the woods smelled wonderful, and Spencer loved romping through every mud puddle he encountered.
More clouds gathered, thunder began to crash, and Spence and I headed home. We barely made it back before a torrential downpour started.
Now what to do? Read? Watch a movie? Go out? I’m not sure what to do to finish up a relaxing day.
Tomorrow I have a few things planned. It’s my birthday and I’m treating myself to another viewing of Star Trek (hey, let me revel in my geekitude). I’d like to make it to CrossFit for the morning class. It’s a nice way to celebrate being 51 years old.
As one of the few folks in this country without any kind of TV signal, I’m sitting here catching up on the Oscars by refreshing the IMDB site. I gather that Slumdog Millionaire is going to take it all.
Slumdog was a fun movie and deserving of attention. Does it deserve all the awards? Who knows? I haven’t seen any of the other best pictures. It’s the hazard of living in a town with only 11 screens. We never get any of the Oscar contenders unless they are also big box-office hits. So far, we had Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire show up. Doubt, Frost/Nixon, Milk, and many of the other films nominated for awards never made it here.
Hey, but we do have clean air, pine trees, and great people. So who cares about movies? (Dilettanteville shyly raises her hand) — okay, okay, but can’t I have clean air and good movies too?
The 12 to 20 inches of snow we received since yesterday has led to a snow day. Whoo hoo! Hey, I grew up in Phoenix and the concept of closing school and work because of snow was a foreign concept to me. But I like this concept! Too bad I never got to experience this when I was 10 years old.
I’m here at work, but not for much longer. The big snowstorm is beginning to dump a chunk of snow on us. I’d sent out an email to co-workers announcing that I’d be leaving by 3:00 due to weather wimpiness on my part. Then the administration at Northern Arizona University, where I work, announced it would close at 3:00.
Whew! I’m not the only weather wimp.
