I have so many things zipping around my brain today...wondering how I'm going to stay on top of all my household duties, how those can still be important when I've got friends and family who's houses are burning to the ground, wondering what I've already got in my pantry and closets that I can donate to Red Cross and other relief organizations to help assist families who HAVE lost every physical thing they own, wondering just how much money I can spend at Cost.co to buy things like deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste, soap, toilet paper, combs, brushes, and even things like socks and undies to donate before BB gets freaked out...

My State is under Red Flag warnings.  If you don't live somewhere with forest fire danger, this means that the temperature and relative humidity are such that any little thing can spark a fire - from a reflection off a car window, to a lightning strike, to a cigarette butt to a blown out tire...it means that the winds are gusty, the air is dry, the thermometer is reading HOT...you may wonder how it is that this can occur someplace like Colorado...well, let me explain a couple things.  1 - Colorado has prairie, desert, high desert, alpine, sub-alpine, and tundra areas.  We have miles and miles of rolling meadows and grasslands, sand dunes, foothills covered in pine, spruce, aspen and cottonwood trees, mountainsides riddled with rock outcroppings as well as trees and grasses, and then we have the high peaks that are just rock...2 - we normally receive most of our moisture in form of snow throughout the winter months.  The snowpack in the mountains is what feeds are rivers, streams, fills our lakes and reservoirs, and waters our crops and fills the City aquifers to allow for showers, laundry, drinking and cleaning...3 - we had a VERY dry winter, unseasonably warm temps, and a rather spotty Spring...4 - 4 years ago, our forests were ravaged by the Pine Beetle infestation and our awesome conservationists fought against having the destroyed, dried out, dead trees removed because it would disturb the eco-system.  Combine these things with the RIDICULOUSLY hot and dry weather we've had so far this summer...and add in our traditional gusty winds and thunder and lightning storms, and you've got the perfect recipe for a firestorm disaster...At this point, all but 2 fires are confirmed to have been started by either lightning strikes, OR something like a blown-out tire on a roadside (yup, that actually happened, and it burnt 40,000 acres of farmland, stopped only by the farmers in the area getting all their equipment out there and making a fire break - no emergency response did anything but put out the burning RV).  1 is still burning so hard that they can't investigate, and the 2nd is new enough that no one has thought to report the cause...

My friends in FL are under water, battling flooding and Tropical Storm Debbie's fallout.  My friends in the Midwest are wondering if their crops will survive the drought...and my friends in AZ are wondering if they'll have any more haboobs blow through.

I jokingly blamed it on the start of the Apocalypse, which was marked the Red Sox winning the World Series...

In a more serious note, we've got emergency situations all over the country, and we've got a load of asses sitting in Washington, D.C. making decisions that will affect our pocketbooks drastically.

Here's my take today:  NOWHERE IN THE CONSTISTUTION DOES IT SAY YOU CAN HAVE THINGS BE AFFORDABLE IN LIFE!!!!!  We are guaranteed the rights to LIFE, LIBERTY and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.  Not guaranteed that we'll actually BE happy, just that we can try to find it...

I know, large can of worms opened up right there...

anyway...I'm fighting with what I can do to help beyond praying for the men and women on the front lines of these fires and floods, our National Guard, our Military, our emergency responders...and then I'm struck with the fact that I've still got a house and family to care for...

It's been a trying last 3 weeks since these fires started...

Please pray for our Nation.  Pray for our Leaders to get their heads out of the sand and to see what is REALLY and TRULY important.  Pray for voters to turn out in record numbers this November and get the people into office who will NOT be swayed...if anyone like that is actually on our ballots...

And pray for me, that I'll find some peace and guidance as to what to do...