(no subject)

The wildfire near my hometown is at 80% containment as of this morning, which is just such an utter relief, good gods. It was between the Yakima and Kittitas Valleys, and at its closest point in Kittitas County was not that far from my parents' house -- I think the evacuation zone on our side of the county line was only a few miles away, though my mother was never under an evacuation order/advisory. My dad is still in Thailand, so she's home alone, and two nights ago she texted me to ask if there was anything important of mine in the house that she should have in her go-bag in case the situation suddenly shifted -- this was the day of the big windstorm in Washington/Oregon, so it seemed very apocalyptic all of a sudden. But the Evans Canyon Fire is now in the mop-up stage, so many of the firefighters there have been sent to other fires in Washington.

I know that on the scale of the entire West Coast being on fire this was not one that was on the scale of what's going on in Oregon or California right now, good gods, but this one was really close to my house and it was terrifying to watch from Georgia. It's not as though I could have done anything if I was there, but...I'm glad that it's under control now, and I hope that's the last one in Kittitas County this fire season.

(I'm also kind of glad that the fair and rodeo were cancelled this year, as normally they always fall over Labor Day Weekend and this Labor Day Weekend was full of fire and smoke.)