Holy moly- what a fall. I don’t know about you, but between the pandemic, and the election, that was more than enough for me. That is not what the universe served up, however.
If you’re a news hound and you were wondering what it was like to be right in the middle of the three biggest fires in Colorado, let me tell ya, it was tense. That’s how it was. The Cal-Wood fire was immediately south of us, and on the first Saturday we watched it cross the hills just to the south of Lyons- a distance of maybe two miles max (which is too damn close to a fast moving fire). Then the East Troublesome Creek fire did something none of us have ever seen and grew 100,000 acres in eight hours, ran over 20 miles east, and crossed the continental divide (all three of those facts are unprecidented). We had just started to wonder if we could unpack our evacuation bags when that happened (so…no). At the same time, the Cameron Peak Fire- now the biggest fire in Colorado history, was pushing south.
Interestingly (he says sarcastically), the month of October was bookended with heavy snow. The first blizzard (technically in September but who can tell anymore) was annoying. The second put the lid on the fires, so was a welcome relief. We never actually evacuated, but were under a warning for ten days. Many of my friends in Estes Park were evacuated, though they’re all home now- yay.
And that was just October.
There’s also the fact that we’re living in a pandemic, and despite the delusional thinking of all kinds of people from the president on down, including a whole lot of people who should know better, its not magically getting better. In fact its getting worse fast. At my day job we went from ‘don’t worry about working in person, we know there’ll be some spikes but we can handle it‘ (love that- ‘we can handle it.’ What that really means is ‘we know some of you will get sick and may die but we’re okay with that outcome’) to, ‘oh my god we need to shut it all down right now!’ in four weeks. Same people four weeks apart. Idiots. Even the most casual knowledge of both history and epidemiology would tell you that this is exactly what you should have expected, and probably planned for. But apparently that’s too much of an ask for some people right now. And the rest are delusional.
Then, in case you missed it, there was an election. Fuck.
And just yesterday a strange monolith was found in Southern Utah. All I can say about that is PUT IT BACK! And, DO NOT TOUCH IT! JUST DO NOT!
If you are, like me apparently, prone to anxiety, this fall has been an especially rich learning experience. Again, sarcasm.
But we need a little balance too, so here are some good things:
I got a new guitar (see video below). That’s always awesome and I have been enjoying getting to know the new axe. More to come on that for sure.
I have written a few new songs. Not sure if they’re any good or not, but it’s always good to be writing.
My wife and daughter are awesome (and very tolerant).
The wild turkeys in our neighborhood are always entertainig.
The cats are great.
And they get along with the dogs.
There’s a lot of good new music in the world right now- Becky Warren’s new record ‘The Sick Season’ is killer. Lydia Loveless’ new record ‘Daughter’ is awesome. And, Bruce Springsteen’s new record ‘Letter to You’ is awesome. It’s the first Springsteen record in a while that I really liked- so much that I learned a few songs off it. Some of them, come to find out, are actually pretty old, but haven’t made a record. So in keeping with the strangeness of 2020, one of the best country songs relesed this year will have been a Springsteen song written over thirty years ago. That’s just perfect.
Stay safe, be well, be thankful.
Follow me wherever you are!
