Some Things On My Mind This Sunday

1. My niece who lives in a canyon close to Ruidoso, NM --  a canyon currently on fire, along with the mountain and forest.  The Little Bear Fire had burned 1,000 acres when the police knocked on her door before sunrise on Saturday to tell them to evacuate.  Today it is still burning at zero containment and has covered more than 26,000 acres.  My thoughts and prayers have been with all of the people who live and work in the area.  I hope they all have homes to go back to.  In reality I know they are estimating 25-30 homes are gone. 
2. The heat.  It reached 100 degrees here today. I am so not looking forward to months of hot weather again.  If my grandchildren did not live here and if I had the means I would move somewhere cooler.  Like in the mountains.  Oh.  I have wanted to live in Ruidoso ever since I visited there on a FHA convention in 9th grade (1969).  Obviously living in the mountains has its disadvantages as well, like forest fires.  And FHA???  I would guess that organization no longer is around.  Back in the old days when I was a kid in a small town in NM girls belonged to a club ... FHA ... Future Homemakers of America.  We learned to bake cookies and sew aprons.  Boys belonged to FFA ...Future Farmers of America.  They learned about running the farm.  The clubs, at that time, were gender specific although FFA eventually woke up and realized girls grow up to do plenty on the farm and allowed girls in their organization. Oh yeah, I was thinking about the heat.  100 degrees today. Sorry, my mind just wanders around like that.  My daughter came and watered the morning glories for me because they looked really pitiful. Already about to curl up and die. Today's temperature just about killed them since they are tender two inch babies.  I drenched them Friday night but missed watering on Saturday evening because I was sick as I could be. 
3. I was thinking about being sick as I could be because I caught a virus, the nasty kind, and threw up so much Friday night/Saturday (aren't you glad you found this blog??) that I think I pulled every muscle in my torso and it is really, seriously, horribly excruciatingly painful to breathe, talk, laugh or move still today.  Pour Zoe, my blond dog, would go to the bathroom with me and whine loudly in sympathy for me. Or, as I told my sister, that or she was whining because I was keeping her awake all night long.   And eating? I am afraid to.  On the upside, I lost about 5 pounds.
4. How blessed I am to have a home.  Where I live a "tent city" was done away with this week.  It had been there a long time, a couple of years at least. Roughly 50 people, including numerous women in their golden years (I don't know their ages but they were interviewed by the news stations and appeared to be in their 50's or so like me), living in very small tents under a bridge.  Yes, actually under a bridge, down by the railroad tracks.  The city decided to pass a law banning public camping between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. I know many of the pros and cons of the ordinance that was passed making it illegal...I wasn't thinking about if it were a good law or a sad law but I was thinking oh Lord, if I had not had the job I held for 20 years thus having a small retirement check, and if I had not had good Dr's and therapists to help me get SS Disability based on their reports, and if I did not have my adult kids, it could SO easily be me living in a tent under a bridge...if I were lucky enough to have a tent and someone to help me put it up because I am seriously challenged at putting things together.  I cried when I read that someone went down there and asked what could they do to help and a woman my age simply asked if they could help her get a can of mace because the entire time she had lived there she felt safe with this makeshift family, and she didn't know where she would end up but knew she probably would not feel safe. 
5. The tent city issue made me think about this woman I spoke with and smiled at a lot for years but I never knew her name.  For 18 years I worked at the downtown library just a few blocks from this tent city and a homeless shelter that remained full all the time.  There was this woman who would spend her days in the library.  She was among the dozen or so "regulars" who were obviously homeless people and stayed with us in the library from our 9 a.m. opening until time for the evening meal at the homeless shelter. They enjoyed our heating or A/C and never caused a problem.  Now there were some that caused problems but that is another story.   Back to this lady.  I always thought of her as Ruby because if it were winter, and lots of times even in the summer, she wore a ruby red wool coat. She was just as pleasant as she could be.  Clean. Polite. Kept to herself. Never caused a fuss. Well dressed. Groomed (although the wig she wore had seen better days (and a long time ago).  Had a nice purse, always stuffed, I suspect with all her belongings.  I'm guessing in her late 40's or 50's. She often sat at a table maybe 25 feet from my desk and I would go by and say hi, how are you doing, smile... that kind of thing.  Mostly I just left her alone and did not disturb her because she was holding parent/teacher conferences.   She would sit at that table, day after day and very quietly, but out loud, hold parent/teacher conferences with people I could not see.  She could see them, she would be looking them in the eye, I am sure, because she was obviously talking to "someone" when she was not glancing down at her spiral notebook.  She must have come every day for 4 or 5 years and then we never saw her again.  I have always wondered what happened to Ruby.  I hope she is with her family.  During the time that she was with us I attended a "Parents of Bipolar Children" group and found out that she must be the sister of a woman who came to the group one day.  She told us her sister had taught school for years and years, then her mental illness became really bad and she lost her job, her home, was living on the street and had been for a long time.  In her handicapped mind she felt her family was somehow trying to harm her and wouldn't let them take her home, although they would have gladly. The sister said she brought her clothes and money for food, that kind of thing when she could catch her sister on a rare "good" day when she would allow her to talk to her. 
6. I guess mostly I have been thinking about homes. People with them, people without them, people who wonder if the wildfires have taken theirs.