Wanted: A Boring Week in Boulder

The mountains behind us are burning. Over 7,000 acres of forest are gone already. From our yard this morning, the sky was a soot-gray and white ashes kept falling like snow onto our lawn and our hair.

We've experienced mountains burning before. In Studio City two years ago, wildfires ravaged the Angeles National Forest and the Santa Monica Mountains. We breathed in the smoky air and listened to sad news reports of people losing their homes. But we watched the fires from across the valley or on our drives to the ocean and never felt threatened in our home. We didn't personally know anyone who was impacted by the fires, unless you count suffering from slight coughs and watery eyes.

In Boulder, we know several families who have been evacuated from their homes. One family, returning from a camping trip over the weekend, wasn't even able to go back into their home to retrieve family photographs and other important possessions. We have a friend who is fighting the fires. We also know those mountains well--picnics on Bald mountain, BBQs at our friends' homes, hikes and camping trips in the woods. The damage and the danger feels closer this time.

We had a different kind of danger in our neighborhood last week. A mother bear and cub clung to a tree one block from our home while the Department of Wildlife aimed their guns to shoot traquilizers at them. They managed to sedate the mother and, upon realizing that her tongue and bottom jaw had recently been destroyed in an accident or fight, decided to euthanize her. Unfortunately, they killed the mother before they caught the cub, who escaped when they tried to tranquilize him. Noni and I watched from the basement windows as three DOW employees ran across our yard, one of them carrying a huge black gun, searching for the cub. He is still missing. I doubt there's anyone in our neighborhood whose heart didn't break just a little bit last week thinking of the starving and distraught orphaned cub. Now, unfortunately, he is probably in good company as the wildfire takes its toll.

I have this thought that the city of Boulder is due for a really boring week next week. One of those run-of-the-mill weeks where nothing out of the ordinary happens. Where you walk the kids to school and smile at the blue sky and breathe in the clean air without thinking about bears or fires or destruction.

As I write, the wind has shifted and the sky immediately above us is blue again (well, bluish at least). I can hear the sound of tankers overhead and am hopeful that they can stop the fire before more damage is done. My prayers are with my friends and the firefighters in the mountains. Please join me in sending some positive thoughts their way.