A Test Of My Resolve To Leave San Francisco

Since moving to rural, high desert Caliente, I've discovered that "flamers" has a different meaning from what it had in my old home in San Francisco. This is wildfire country. A truly nasty fire broke out above my place and my younger daughter's place. It's isolated territory and no homes are expected to burn or lives get lost. But it has wrought havoc with something we all take for granted--electricity.

My younger daughter lives closer to the fire, but the Kern County Fire Department says that if things continue as they are now, the fire is unlikely to reach their property. But there are evacuation alerts for her property and mine, which I think was basically erring on the side of caution. I have a clear path of escape, but their property is bit more dicey.

Nevertheless, even at scary times like this, it's important to maintain perspective and a moderate sense of humor. So just for fun, I thought I'd share my e-mail to my daughter this morning when the power finally came back on. Her name is Andrea, and she works in Bakersfield, so at least I don't have to worry about her, her husband who works in Tehachapi, or the grandkids who go to school far from the fire. Those of you who have stuck with me over the past year will recognize that this post about Caliente is somewhat different from what I used to write from San Francisco.

Andrea:

Speaking of modern conveniences, I was without power for 16 hours. It went off at 4:04 PM yesterday [Tuesday] and finally came on again, unexpectedly, at 10:20 this morning. SCE had just told me that the lines were all down because of the fire, and that the fire crews wouldn't let the power workers into the area.

I've learned several lessons from my first summer in the country:

1. Don't assume that all candles are "dripless." I'm still cleaning wax off the dining room tablecloth. Beegee decided that the moment I turned my back, she would play with the still-wet wax from the candle on the bar counter [Note: Begee is the new addition to the family. She is now Kitty Kelly's assistant. She's a full calico kitten, so now I guess I have to get a gingham dog]. It was splattered all the way from the espresso machine to the telephone. Big, thick globs of wax. "Designer" candles (like the one I got from Cartier) smell really nice and give off more light than you'd think.

2. Reading by candlelight is nearly-impossible. Abraham Lincoln is now even more of a hero to me than he was before. Have at least one Coleman lantern handy (I'll be getting one on our next shopping trip).

3. Gasoline-powered electrical generators are not a luxury. In addition, I was not aware that the sound of somebody else smart enough nearby to have a generator can bring on a murderous rage in me.

4. Computers don't like power failures. It took almost an hour to get my main computer back up and running (which is why I'm only just now writing to you).

5. Have plenty of water available, and never let the Sparklett's cooler run low. Toilets don't flush without water, and electrical water pumps don't operate without power.

6. When the TV and radios don't work, it isn't quite as quiet in the country as you might think. Suddenly, I could hear the wind blowing and twigs snapping, not to mention cats playing and thundering across the floors.

7. The SCE repair crews are both brave and efficient. Customer service--not so much. Besides giving me bad information or no information, they told me they appreciated my calling about the outage (what the hell did they expect?), and each agent I talked to thanked me and reminded me that I can check SCE information on www.sce.com. And how, exactly, am I supposed to do that when I don't have any power, goddammit?

8. If you already had enough ice made, the freezer doesn't completely thaw in 16 hours, and if you don't open the refrigerator door too often, the food stays cool there, too.

9. The electronic ignition oven won't light with a match, but the burners will. So hot coffee is available, and all those canned foods come in very handy. Life is possible even when your microwave doesn't work.

DAD

Sidenote: Since writing this e-mail and post, the situation changed somewhat. The Kern County Fire Department has called in federal, state and local resources, including the Forestry Service and Bureau of Land Management. There are now 1600 firefighters on the fire lines. One structure has been destroyed, and 250 in the Lake Isabella area (not near us) are presently threatened. So far no lives lost, thank God. Evacuations have been ordered for some of the smaller communities outside Lake Isabella. The fire is about 50% contained, but full containment is not expected until tomorrow. Well, nobody said country life was easy.