It seems that some weeks we have lots happening but the mingling of spring & winter has everyone in a winter funk! Although across the street where 11 houses were burned to the ground last August, there is now lots of activity. If you remember the fire photos of what remained, it is great to see 6 houses in process. . .one bright yellow is almost ready to live in!!! And our neighbor, directly across the street is completing the dry wall!! The busy activity and the rebuilding is much better than being reminded everyday of the August inferno. And to think we came within a whisker of losing all our photos, important papers, including tax records, computer with all my discs. . .there is no easy answer why we were spared. . .fortunate, yes but the Bible states that " Rain falls of the just and the unjust" which leads me to believe that God was not punishing anyone in particular or sparing anyone in particular. But it does remind us to be thankful for life itself!!!
If you click on the photo with the outhouse, you will note the burned trees.
Another postscript, the homeless man who started the fire was acquitted by jury and released from prison. That same day he came back to Ashland, walked behind our little mall and flipped all the breakers of about 15 stores. They thought a transformer had blown and it took the electric dept. all morning to figure out that all they needed to do was turn the breakers back on!!!! Two weeks ago, he threw debris from the overpass onto Interstate 5 and was arrested again!!!! Our society has no way of confining mentally disabled folks like him. . .so it looks like we'll just have to wait for another fire!
