We entered 2021 with drama and we exited 2021 with, dare I say it? MORE drama!
I don't even know where to start. The last week has been so turbulent, unsettling, frightening, disappointing and heartbreaking that it's hard to see how 2022 could be anything but a step up.
Yes, for sure 2021 had some highlights. Heck, we got 4 chickens and a puppy that year and all 5 have given me more reasons to smile and motivation to pick up a camera than I thought I could have in a year without travel. All that aside though, we have gone from near miss to near miss all year and while having avoided a direct hit, we are part of a community that has experienced great loss and suffering, multiple times and it is hard to not cry. A lot.
First there was COVID (which came and went with intensity and degree of personal risk all year long), then the King Soopers mass shooting just up the road. Wild fires from Canada to California and throughout Colorado that swept nasty, unhealthy air over us and forced more indoor time even after COVID-related gathering restrictions were loosened. Then the last hurrah.. the big one...
After a very wet and soggy spring, grasses and all manner of plant life flourished. They grew strong and tall, put up seeds all summer long and then dried up. No rain to speak of since July meant everything became hay... tinder... high risk for burning.
December brought with it high winter temps that stayed in the 60's and fierce winds and sparks from careless humans, lightning, downed trees that caught power lines. Silly little fires that randomly got started and might otherwise have just been a nuisance, were spread quickly and had plenty of fuel.
December 30 saw one such fire spark and then rage out of control as it was fanned - no, forced - along the ground over hills, through neighborhoods at 100+ miles per hour in Boulder County. There was no time to pack anything and people fled their homes with the clothes on their backs. Often leaving behind pets or not having the opportunity to get back to the home to retrieve them to start with.
1000+ homes and many businesses were burned to the ground between noon and 6pm. And when I say burned to the ground, I mean a black patch of land with a bit of chaotic, unrecognizable rubble greeted the person who dared walk up the concrete front steps to what used to be a house. Residents are lucky to make out the charred remains of a washing machine or file cabinet. There is nothing left to selvage. "Lucky" was when the trees may have not all been burned. Every now and then the fire snubbed a house and left it standing, for no good reason. Those residents at first felt lucky. Their worldly possessions were not burned but unlikely they escaped unharmed. Are those people still feeling lucky when they get to come home to an incinerated street, no neighbors, the stink of campfire hanging thickly in the air, unable to enjoy any outdoor time at home and missing every tree and critter that they used to share space with? They will be be putting up with construction mess, pollution, noise and chaos for the next few years? We consider them lucky only when we compare them to neighbors who have lost family photos, inherited treasures, original art, all of their worldly possessions and the place they call home.
Tragedy has struck our community again.
Mark and I are among the truly lucky. Our Boulder home escaped with just power and internet disruptions. While no light, hot water, furnace and other amenities felt like hardship, we quickly realized, our house was still a safe haven for us and anyone experiencing much worse.
Our friends Kathy and Mike found a place with us here and will be welcome to treat our home as their home, as long as they like. Their beautiful home burned to the ground on the afternoon of December 30. Their whole neighborhood burned to the ground, if we are being blunt about it.
My rental house in Louisville was assumed to have been a total loss too. By some miracle, it was spared and became one house of 3 that wasn't destroyed. Better than that, the tenants escaped unharmed, with their dog as the yard and neighbors began to catch fire. We are hosting their dog as the family shelters in an Airbnb until further notice. The house, while undamaged by fire, is a stinky mess of dirt and ash. Little 'dunes' are piled up around it, smothering gardens, walkways and play areas with toxic filth. The wee trees that I planted 2 years ago got roasted... as did a lot of grass and the wood around raised beds.
Miraculously the house, garage, shed and barn still stand. Heck, the firewood behind the barn is still there! Whatever the velocity the wind was doing in the moments the fire swept through, it was too fast for flames to take a hold and the fire sped across the yard and finished its business at other addresses.
9 of the 12 homes on Dyer Rd were lost that day. Smoldering piles of rubble, free-standing brick chimneys, burned out cars, decimated gardens and wooden power poles still aflame, greeted us at 8am the next day.
Who pulled the car over and cried big loud tears? This gal. Relief? Dismay? Empathy? All of the above.
So yeah... 2021 went up in smoke in Boulder County as the rest of the world partied and toasted the new year in. We ate cheese and crackers by candlelight, then took some leftovers across the street to the neighbors house with electricity. By 8pm we were all in bed.
The End.
