Fire, Rain, and Holiday Knitting?!

I live in a place that is always under danger from this particular natural disaster. There is at least one major fire a year, either from someone's stupidity, nature's forces, or, worst, a deliberate act.

Rarely, though, does it come so close to home that I am nearly run over by the local tank company while driving down my driveway. Which is what happened yesterday morning. For perspective, my driveway is 1/2 a mile long. 1/4 a mile up the hill, and another 1/4 after you turn down our private portion of said driveway. It was at the turn that the tanker decided to pull in and turn around, and I had to back up quickly to avoid being squashed. And let me tell you, being squashed is not something one is generally afraid of driving a behemouth of a car like an Expedition. (The only thing I have at the moment, forgive me my gas guzzling, trailer hauling wasteful ways)

It turns out said tanker was trying to get into our neighbor's property, where lightning had struck an hour earlier. I got the nice CDF man to come up the drive as well, get the phone number to the land owner, etc. And despite reassurances that 'the rain this morning made it hardly dangerous at all, dont' worry'...we worry a little. The rain lasted all of four minutes, leaving spots of dampness between the great tracts of dry earth, gravel, and shriveled lawn stubs. Hardly 'rain' of any real standing. But apparently enough to keep a small spot fire from being a ragin inferno endangering livestock and oak trees, and yes, home.

The fire is not, yet, out, despite those assurances. It is scheduled to burn for a week or so, smoulderng underground where old ash and paper waste from a mill are buried. It reminds me of Pennsylvania, of visiting Centralia, where coal still burns some many decades after the fire's beginning. Only, of course, it isn't coal, and a week is not a decade. I also doubt the raod will melt, or the noxious fumes will make our country road inhabitable. It is just a tiny thing, and yet it is the tiny things that seem to matter most, most especially when they are smoldering and smoking and flaring up in what amounts to your backyard.

On the crafty front, I finished a little crochet baby hat for one of our manager's grnad-daughters today. I think I'll write this one down, since it turned out really kind of cute. I'll try to wrestle the camera away from Dad again to take pictures, but don't hold your breath.

I did, though, join a holiday create-a-long. I've always wanted to do more homey stuff, and here was the inspiration...no...demand...to do it! I wanted to post the purty little button, but my technological skills suck.

I'm still working on teh rectangle issue, but the thought of all that short rowing leaves me a little...daunted. Not that I don't like short rows, but oy. I think I'll just do squares. :)