That's all I want to say on that point. It's been a while since I've come on here, so I thought it was again time to enter some thoughts. Summer is coming to an end and our local schools will begin tomorrow. I've always liked this time of year whether I was in school or not. It seems more often than not when school starts, the mornings start cooling off. It's been a hot and dry summer, and as a result, we're dealing with fires. We have two large ones in the state right now, and one of them has been wearing out the hard-working firemen. The other one is fairly new, but I'm guessing it's challenging as well since it's located in the steep terrain of our tallest mountains. I have connections in the first one, extended family, some 2nd-3rd generational cousins that I am in touch with on Facebook. I've seen the anxiety they experienced watching it. That land holds a lot of memories for them. I have family buried in cemeteries in that area that are at risk of being caught up in the fire, but so far the fire has mostly gone the other direction. With our temperatures slowly decreasing a few degrees cooler and the wind speeds coming down, we're starting to see some progress. One thing impressed me: on a page with the fire updates, they had a map showing where the firefighters came from to help put out the fire. I wasn't surprised to see neighboring states helping out. That was fairly well known that neighboring states help. What pleasantly surprised me was that there were representatives from all but two or three states from the lower 48 helping to put out the fire, even from the East Coast! I looked at that map, sat back, and thought This is the United States that I know. This is our country at its best. How I wish the rest of us would follow that example!
Besides that, I've been involved in yet another choir and we sang on Sunday. As usual, it was a beautiful thing to participate in. I don't really have any interesting stories to talk about. One thing that I noticed during the experience was the sense of calm I felt. I've spoken many times about having performance anxiety, and I usually get it even when participating with choirs, but it didn't happen. Neither the anticipatory heart pumping and shaking nor the split-second rush of panic ever came! Another win in the books!
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| Smoky Sunset |
