God Bless the Fire Fighters.
The fire fighters sacrifice so much, work so hard, and place themselves in so much danger to save homes, save lives, and protect all of us who live in fire danger zones. I have come to appreciate what they do so much since I moved here. This picture of smoke from the fires raging in the Angeles National Forest was taken on Saturday, when the wind blew the smoke in our direction, about 75 -100 miles away. I pray for the animals, both the wild ones and those in several animal sanctuaries that are located in the fire zone, Tippi Hedren's Shambala and the Wild Life Way Station are two that I know of.
Yesterday, I had some laundry to do, so off I went to the laundromat. The one and only in our town. Unfortunately, some places take advantage of being the only one and this laundromat is definitely one of them. The washing machines usually work OK, but you are very lucky to get out of there with dry laundry.
My one roll of quarters will be good for:
three machines.
After they reduced the time you get for a quarter from 10 minutes to seven, I usually just do the seven minutes and then take the clothes home damp or wet (some dryers don't work at all --- surprise!) and hang them on the line.
After I was done, I needed to pick up a few things from a few stores in town. This is what I love about going shopping in a small town: You never know who you may run into. In the city, you wouldn't run into these fine critters, that's for sure. They live in a large field behind the Dollar Tree store and I always hope to see them when I go there. Yesterday I was lucky!
There is just something about donkey ears! About donkeys for that matter. I don't think I have ever met such trusting, loving, intelligent and all over wonderful animals, ever.
When I first moved here, I suffered from Target withdrawals. No Target stores within 50 miles.
Then I discovered this store, and though not entirely cured, at least I have a lot of fun when shopping here.
And you save some money too! This is what I got for $10.00 plus tax.
As I drove home -- toward the east -- the entire horizon was one huge cloud of smoke. And the strange, mushroom shaped, fluffy white clouds, that are generated by these fires, were huge and beautiful, but scary looking at the same time. I was glad to get home and be greeted by three smiling faces. This is one of them:
With work almost over, I took the wet laundry outside and hung it on the clothesline. While walking over there, I scared up a covey of quail that took refuge in the juniper bushes next to the line. So I hung the wash to the contented chirping of the quail, surrounded by mountains and peace, feeling that life doesn't get much better than this.
