It's been interesting out here in our new home.
As I like to tell people, there may not be a lot to do but it's rarely boring.
A pretty good thunderstorm came
through last week. We were returning home from the store and were getting a few drops
of rain as we got closer to home. The rain got heavier as we drove up the hill
from the highway and by the time we were within a mile of home it was coming
down like wild. Thunder and lightning, too. One bolt we saw while we were
still a ways from home looked like it may have landed right in our front yard.
I got soaked getting the gate open to drive in.
Later in the afternoon,
after the rain had stopped, I went outside and glanced toward the mountains
behind us. Imagine my surprise when I saw a small brushfire on the side of
the mountain!
There was already a helicopter surveying the fire and a short
while later it was replaced by a CalFire forward air control plane.
Not long after that a couple fire retardant planes came in and made
drops
to encircle the fire with retardant. Those pilots were
incredible. They came into the drop from the peak of the mountain ridge
and followed the ground profile downhill to the fire where they
dropped
the retardant and pulled out of the dive. It was amazing to
watch.
The retardant slowed the fire's progress and the day's rain and
high humidity also helped. We could see the fire all night but it
didn't get much larger. The next day two ground crews hiked into the site
and spent the day putting out hot spots and marking areas for a
water dropping helicopter that worked with them.
The incident web page
said there were about twenty lightning strike fires in the area. Most were
very small. Some were just one dead tree. We've got more thunderstorms
forecast this week but so far they
haven't showed up.
A couple nights ago I took a quick shower before bed. As I was walking to the bedroom I had
a horrible sudden sharp pain on the outside of my left foot. I felt my foot for broken glass or something similar but didn't find any. On Fayme's advice I got a
flashlight and looked closely at the floor. Sure enough, scorpion. First
one we've seen.
Little bastard got me in the foot.
I caught him and put
him in a jar in case he needs to be identified if I started convulsing or
foaming at the mouth or something equally worrisome. I felt fine after icing the sting site and went to bed. By the following morning
I couldn't even tell where it got me.
Apparently I'll survive the experience.
The scorpion is still in the jar and I think he'll be less likely to
survive.
I headed out yesterday morning to town to get some stuff and stopped
to chat with our neighbor at her front gate:
"Hi, Mary. Guess
who got stung by a scorpion last night?"
"Oh, no! Not Fayme!!"
"Nope, I
got it."
"Oh, good!!"Me:
???!!!Her:
"Well, you'll handle that a lot
better than she would."Too true. After an initial quick look on the
internet to see scorpion sting symptoms and first aid I was fine. There is a
very dangerous one in California but he's over by the Colorado River. The
rest appear to be simply painful.
Happy archery, and watch where you put your feet!
