Hot, Damn.

There are many things I have not experienced yet in life.Well, the list is too long to enumerate. But, one thing I can check off is fleeing from a raging forest fire, Check. Well, I don’t think that was on my list. As I drove into Santa Fe, on my way back from Lubbock, TX (which was so hot, it might as well have been on fire), I saw some massive nasty looking clouds. I was first happy to see it because it looked like a massive thunderstorm might finally bring some water. As I got close, I noticed the “cloud” had a really strange shape, kind of an arching structure, and it lookslike it was actually rooted in the mountains. Instead of a massive storm cloud, it was actually the smoke from a massive forest fire. As I drove I kept convincing myself it was not coming from Los Alamos. Unfortunately, the road disagreed. As I got up into town, I could actually see flames. The townwas not on fire, but fire was definitely close. The odd thing was that the wind direction was blowing all the smoke toward Santa Fe and away from Los Alamos. I couldn’t even smell smoke.

I woke up the next morning to a beeping from the smoke alarm. My first thought was, “The fire is here!” But the alarm wasn’t actually going off, the power was just out, causing the alarm to periodically beep. With still no evacuation in place, it became a waiting game. Around noon, the wind started to shift and the smoke started to roll in and some ash began falling. It wasn’t terrible, but annoying. You might think, “Oh, I love that campfire smell!” Yea, wellno. It is a great smell when you can take a step back and be out of it. Unfortunately, this experience has put the kaputs on my plan for a smoke scented/flavored toiletries/cologne. I thought it was a great idea, “Smoke’: Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” but while the slogan is golden, I no longer think thing scent is a winner.

So to make an already long story, shorter. I became a Los Alamos refugee Monday afternoon. I headeddown to a hotel in Santa Fe, thinking this might last a long as several days. I right this nearly a week later, and the latest headline in the paper was, “Breaking News: Return no imminent for Los Alamos residents.” No houses or really any lab property has burned, but the fire is pushing 100,000 acres, but keep in mind it reached nearly 40,000 acres in the first half-day. After finally getting bored of sitting around, I have now headed up to Golden/Denver/Boulder, Colorado. It is great to see green things, and not see smoke.
No more exciting stories, I’m just totally over forest fires. Although, I am hopeful conspiracy theorists can come up with some exciting stories for the “true” cause of the Los Alamos fire.