New Mexico turns out to be more exciting than I expected. For several weeks the wrong sort of excitement has been front and center.

In the living room our emergency packing stands at the ready. The cat and I are here waiting until W comes back from a musical offering in the center of town. Our dear friend Ron has brought together a group of musicians to bless the townsfolk and outliers wonderful music. I am dressed and ready. But when W got in the car I chose to stay inside our house. With the cat.

The cat and I are not going to be apart while fire threatens to rip through the parched acres and decimate our place. We will go together wherever we end up going…whether it is to a building to shelter evacuees or just going to bed as usual. The thought of a cat stuck in a house that is burning down is really horrible.

We have neighbors in this state who have lost everything to these fires. We sheltered a family last week who brought their horse with them. People are having to open the barn and let their horses fend for themselves as they run from the roaring. wind-driven flames.

There was a whole place that burned down with a barn full of baby calves, I heard today. That is one of many horror stories of trapped livestock. What is more hellish than being burned alive…whether human or a beast? No(

The concert is probably finishing up as I write. W will be back once he has heard the show and applauded the musicians and helped our dear friend put things away and close up the venue.

It’s dark now. I do not see the color of the sky now …the dark leaden gray smoke with dust and ash that has traveled in different directions all around the valley. Happily I see no glow out there…but there are huge trees on the mountains which can smolder for many days. And they are tinder dry.i

People are watching very closely to see if they will suddenly be ordered to evacuate. The wind is wild and fickle.

W is back now. He’s on the phone with his adult children. They’ve been emailing him all this evening. Lots of worry for so many people these fiery weeks in New Mexico.