Life goes on
Thanks to all for your kind thoughts in the aftermath of a very stressful week here in San Diego County. I saw stars last night and today, blue sky. Life is slowly returning to pre-fire normal. My son went back to his high school today after the fires had forced a week’s closure. When he got home he asked me to guess what he found in his locker. I didn’t have to think twice. I knew it wasn’t a love note or a forgotten ham sandwich. Ash covered the tops of all his books and papers. Lockers are housed outside in San Diego. All the lockers at his school were lined with ash on the inside. But he brushed it away and now it’s gone.
For so many others of course, the fire’s aftermath can’t just be brushed away. My family and I were some of the lucky ones. Nearly 350 students in my son’s school district alone were left homeless by the fire. Well, not exactly homeless. Houseless is a better word. The recovery and rebuilding process will be long and tedious for so many. I wish there was a way to speed up time so that the Big Inbetween could somehow seem short. I’ve heard that for many of the victims of the 2003 San Diego fires, it was 2005 before life seemed normal again. Kind of puts my light and momentary inconveniences in perspective.
I should mention, too, that in our haste to flee last Monday, I forgot to take a picture when we released Truman back into the wild. (Truman is the tarantula, as in “Hairy S.” Geddit?) I had promised the Edge that I would post a picture of his release. But the day we evauated was also the day we decided Truman needed to be able to run like the dickens into a rock pile if the flames reached the house. So the last thing we did before we left the house to whatever destiny awaited it, was let Truman go. It actually wasn’t that dramatic. I think he might’ve been a little sluggish from all the crickets he had eaten the day before. (Note to self: Do not put all four crickets in tarantula cage thinking he will eat just one a day. He will eat them all the same day. Little hairy piglet. ) When we drove down the driveway, Truman was just sitting on the piece of bark we used to coax him out of his temporary home, watching us go. I’m thinking he might not have wanted us to see which way he went.
And now that the local world is spinning on its axis at the normal speed, here’s a look at a new mass market release by my good friend and simply the nicest person you will ever meet, Deb Raney. Within This Circle is a sequel to her stunning A Vow to Cherish. Within This Circle continues the story of John Brighton and Julia Sinclair. After a tumultuous courtship, John and Julia Brighton have a second chance at happiness, a fresh marriage and, now that their children are grown, a new era in their lives to revel in the promise of the future. Only such a promise is never guaranteed. And life can change in a heartbeat. The Brightons’ life is turned upside down when John’s daughter, Jana, abandons her husband Mark and three-year-old daughter. As Jana struggles through delayed grief over her mother’s death, her actions put her marriage and her own daughter in danger. John and Julia reach out to little Ellie, to give the young couple time to heal, but the little girl is confused and longing for her mother. How much sorrow and stress can both fledgling marriages endure? Two very different couples, each with only their love and faith to guide them.
Check it out. See you on Friday. And if you happen to see Truman, tell him I said hey and for pity’s sake, go easy on the crickets.
