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Text of the page (random words):
ling bambi buckets filled with water beneath them to and empty from the fire they looked like mosquitoes dropping trickles of water into hell not again these fires are only supposed to happen once in a couple of lifetimes but last year at almost this exact time there was a fire burning in the mountains behind my own house it started in waldo canyon one of my favorite hiking spots i had been out shopping when i looked up into the mountains and saw smoke rising by the time i got home a short time later it had doubled in size almost home the waldo canyon fire had been burning for an hour it seemed like it was far enough away that it wouldn t threaten my neighborhood as it burned i had to keep my house sealed up as the smell of smoke was so strong it was so hot no air conditioning no breeze through open windows i would go to sleep fitfully at best at night with those fires burning back there praying none would be caught unawares in the middle of the night i would wake up in the morning with a lurch because of the smell and i d check the news and look around outside in search of fire always with the smell of smoke in the air no one thought the fires would reach as far as the city but i evacuated my dad who was on vacation and staying with me just in case i didn t want to have to try to have any future evacuation any more complicated than need be and a couple days later devil winds picked up and blew that fire like a river down into the beautiful mountain shadows neighborhood just a couple of miles from my own neighborhood i had been taking photographs at a local school that looked down into a number of the canyons that were on fire when the winds inexplicably collapsed over the mountains and tripled in velocity i watched in horror as the fire began to run out of the canyons and around the mountains seemingly directly toward my home as i rushed to my vehicle and to home i could feel my heart racing when i reached home i could see the flames not too far in the distance the view from my window as the fire entered the city as i was taking pictures of the fire from my bedroom window i all of the sudden realized i needed to leave the smoke and flames were getting awfully close very quickly not too much later and the smoke was just down the street i had already packed up in pre evacuation so i took a quick video tape of all the things in my house rapidly explaining in a very shaking voice what it was i owned and what i thought things might be worth for insurance purposes and to remember smoke was blocking out the sunshine and burning my throat within moments the smoke was filling my neighborhood i caught and loaded up my cats and picked up a few last minute items and headed out as the smoke and embers blew into my own little neighborhood in a toxic choking cloud i said good bye to my neighbors as they also evacuated and thanked my next door neighbor as he watered down our building one last time before he and his family left as i was leaving i got an electronic reverse 911 call instructing me it was time to get out now i had already resigned myself to losing nearly everything i owned and was at peace about that by the time i reached safety everything i had evacuated with including my cats smelled like forest fire i thought watching from a distance as the fire consumed everything in its path that all of colorado springs was going to be ashes by morning but it wasn t miraculously the fire was contained to and stopped in mountain shadows the fire had been traveling a half a mile an hour and the nearest burn to my house was only a mile away but i lost nothing not true for so many i thanked god for graciously sparing me but 346 families homes were a total loss quite a few those of friends that fire was declared the worst in colorado history but that record was not to stand for long on tuesday less than a year later the hellish quadrad of high winds high temperatures near zero humidity and a longstanding drought lead to a another fire of epic proportions raging out of control through one of the most lovely areas in all of colorado springs as i watched from new life church i saw pops of black smoke rising out of the gray that was homes burning so awful to watch even from a safe distance for the past five days i have been experiencing that same sick and uncomfortable feeling remembering my own experiences a year ago this fire was 10 miles away i could see the smoke out the same bedroom window only looking in the opposite direction across town thousands and thousands and thousands more new evacuees were experiencing the same emotions and fears that we on this side of town experienced last year i could feel it again like it was happening to me there was one morning in particular when i was awakened early to the smell of smoke that i felt that shaky uncertain sort of scared feeling in my chest again i quickly got up and looked out all of my windows went outside to look for evidence of fire and checked the news to see if there was a new fire perhaps nearby i had this feeling i should be packing up and going somewhere just to be sure i didn t like it i had put the word out that my home was open for fire refugees but no one took me up on my offer which turned out to be a good thing as a few nights ago my phone rang at 1 30 those early morning phone calls are never good news it was my friend abner and he was calling to tell me he was very sick he was in casper wyoming for work and it sounded like he had malaria i told him my house was available and to get here as soon as he could what a weird thing to have happen in the middle of a totally different kind of crisis so as abner a malaria refugee was getting over the worst of his fever and other symptoms the heat lifted the humidity rose we got some rain the fire abated and evacuees started to return to their homes those who still had them as of tonight 483 homes are a total loss the death toll is two two souls trying desperately to evacuate who were captured by the flames and just like that less than a year later we have a new worst fire in colorado history things eventually begin to return to some normalcy my windows are open and i don t smell smoke abner was well enough to get to his parents home to spend fathers day with his pop my mother two sisters nephew and their cats who were all evacuated the evening the fire broke out have returned to an undamaged house and that jittery feeling is abating for me colorado springs is an amazing city for the second time in a year the community absorbed 10 s of thousands of evacuees lines for donating food water and other supplies stretched for miles at various drop off locations by basic standards it s a large city but it acts like a small town people line the streets cheering the firefolks who run in when others run out when i had to evacuate last year i had a dozen people offer a place in their home to me i imagine that this is the same story many others would tell it is likely that last year s evacuees returned the favor to the exact same folks who took them in i am blessed to live in such a great place i am blessed that all i have had to endure with these fires is some temporary inconvenience and a ongoing sense of uncertainty about future fire when i lived in southern california there would be times when it seemed more quiet than usual more still than usual warmer than usual the birds would be quiet there was no rustling of ocean breeze through the vegetation even the bugs were silent we called it earthquake weather now when it gets hot here when the humidity dips into single digits and when the winds kick up it will be fire weather and i will pray that epic firestorms are a thing of the past i pray that lightening does not strike my wonderful community three times share this tweet email a link to a friend opens in new window email print opens in new window print like loading leave a comment tags black forest fire colorado colorado springs community earthquake weather epic firestorm evacuees family fever fire fire weather fires flashbacks friends malaria refugees smoke waldo canyon fire wildfire posted in colorado june 3 2013 some aw e by lou linda awe aw noun verb awed aw ing noun 1 an overwhelming feeling of reverence admiration fear etc produced by that which is grand sublime extremely powerful or the like in awe of god in awe of great political figures 2 archaic power to inspire fear or reverence 3 obsolete fear or dread verb used with object 4 to inspire with awe 5 to influence or restrain by awe you might use awe somewhere in describing this photograph aw aw interjection 1 used to express protest disbelief disgust or commiseration 2 used to express sentimental or sugary approval aw wwwwwwwwwww would be appropriately used in response to this photograph now go be smarter use these two words correctly p s could not get the spacing to work on this sorry for the somewhat difficult read because of that share this tweet email a link to a friend opens in new window email print opens in new window print like loading leave a comment tags a tiny rant aw awe correct word usage spelling stop using awe when it should be aw and vice versa you re spelling it incorrectly posted in lou rants may 31 2013 why i do not make a good african woman reason 2 by lou linda chickens the actual bird is not problematic chickens are actually kinda cute some are downright beautiful i m not afraid of chickens or anything i m okay with them being alive i m okay with them dead all ready to be cooked and i m especially okay with eating them i love chicken bake it fry it roast it whatever yum yum yum where i fail as an african woman is getting said chicken from that live state into that ready to be cooked state throughout africa it is not unusual to see a woman on the bus or minibus carrying a live chicken the eating kind not the laying kind tied into a plastic bag with only its head out or in a basket or the like this chicken is for dinner the african woman will kill it pluck it and break it down in order to cook it for her family and it will be amazing because african chicken is soooo much better than any chicken i ve ever eaten in america the only time i ve been faced with any part of that process was in zambia back in 2006 in case you re new to my story prior to my summer in zambia i had done very very little actual cooking didn t really know how i had never even made fried chicken however being very brave i had purchased a number of chickens in order to make fried chicken for my team of twenty seven people knowing it was likely that i wasn t accustomed to slaughtering chickens the woman from whom i purchased them quietly did that business out of my eye and ear shot and brought the now dead chickens to me she must have seen the rather horrified look on my face when i saw the pile of white feathered headless bodies as she immediately smiled and asked if i knew how to clean them which of course i didn t i also didn t have a knife that would cut through bones even if i wanted to tackle the butchering part so i paid her a little bit extra to do the job for me and told her she could have all the insides less than an hour later she returned with a big bowl of chicken pieces that looked a whole lot more like what i was used to seeing at home how i was used to seeing chicken for sale what the chickens i bought in zambia looked like i would have tackled the plucking part but it would have taken me about a day or two to do the job i m not sure i would ever be able to do the killing part and for that i would not make a good african woman share this tweet email a link to a friend opens in new window email print opens in new window print like loading leave a comment tags africa african chicken tastes the best chickens fried chicken why i do not make a good african woman zambia posted in africa lou s and abner s east and southern african adventure wanderings zambia zambia zfw may 19 2013 unpaid product endorsement skechers go walk slip ons by lou linda i was on a search i needed a pair of shoes i was looking for a pair of shoes that had to perform very specific functions and meet specific criteria i was going to be traveling and backpacking in africa for three weeks and i needed a pair of shoes that were 1 extremely lightweight 2 very durable 3 had at least decent if not good arch support 4 would be easy on easy off 5 could be folded up to pack 6 would double as water shoes 7 because of reason 6 would need to dry quickly 8 would be easily hand washed and finally 9 were fully enclosed and 10 could be worn with the back folded down like a slipper plus if they could be not ugly possibly even cute that would be my bonus a pretty daunting list of requirements for a pair of shoes no i couldn t find anything remotely close i d pretty much resigned myself to needing to take multiple pairs of shoes which i was loathe to do i really only wanted to take this elusive pair plus a pair of flip flops sort of desperate i decided to drop into a famous footwear store that i happened to be driving past the day before i was to leave on my trip when i listed these things off to the salesperson she immediately took me to these shoes i tried a pair on and couldn t believe there was actually a shoe that appeared to fulfill every single one of my criteria i put these shoes through their paces in my three week trip they were awesome and though they are a just little worn looking they still look good enough to wear in my work as a nurse and as a totally unexpected bonus despite wearing them non stop day and night at times and without socks they did not get smelly i will be buying additional pairs of these shoes in more colors as i fear they will not be an ongoing style in skechers line up i give you skechers go walk slip ons available at shoe stores i suppose everywhere and on amazon com as well here s a link to google images for them look at all the wonderful color choices share this tweet email a link to a friend opens in new window email print opens in new window print like loading leave a comment tags awesome shoes go walk slip ons shoes skechers unpaid product endorsement posted in lou s and abner s east and southern african adventure unpaid product endorsements may 18 2013 why i do not make a good african woman reason 1 by lou linda and this is a big one in many parts of africa there is a form of transportation called a bike taxi the bike taxi strikes fear into my heart take a battered bicycle and put a seat on the back of it over the rear tire and you have a bike taxi like this one i wish no like these ones these have really good seats on them by the way i recently went on another adventure to the african continent the trip in a nutshell went like this fly to dubai meet up with abner hang out in dubai for a bit waiting for our next flights and sleep in the airport fly to dar es salaam tanzania me via qatar abner direct meet up with abner again spend night in dar take boat to zanzibar spend time in zanzibar...