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   Frank Bennett (fgbjr@indieweb.social)'s status on Friday, 30-Dec-2022 13:57:02 JST Frank Bennett

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   • Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁

   @blakereid As someone who hearkens from Chico CA, about 20 miles from the town that gasbag Donald J. Trump fumbled over as "Pleasure" while standing in its ashes, but is actually called "Paradise," I am with you in heaving a sigh of relief, and in worrying about what happens from here.

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     Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁 (blakereid@mastodon.lawprofs.org)'s status on Friday, 30-Dec-2022 13:57:03 JST Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁

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     This one really brought home how intense the fire was.

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     Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁 (blakereid@mastodon.lawprofs.org)'s status on Friday, 30-Dec-2022 13:57:04 JST Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁

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     This was the scene about a block away from that. (It stretches on like this for a solid quarter or half a mile.)

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     Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁 (blakereid@mastodon.lawprofs.org)'s status on Friday, 30-Dec-2022 13:57:04 JST Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁

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     This was the pile of scorched hoses that the firefighters were collecting for disposal at the local rec center.

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     Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁 (blakereid@mastodon.lawprofs.org)'s status on Friday, 30-Dec-2022 13:57:05 JST Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁

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     This was the spot fire my neighbor put out with a garden hose that probably saved our whole block.

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     Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁 (blakereid@mastodon.lawprofs.org)'s status on Friday, 30-Dec-2022 13:57:06 JST Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁

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     This was one of the first pictures we got from a neighbor who went back, after the wind had died down. (This is a couple blocks from where we live.)

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     Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁 (blakereid@mastodon.lawprofs.org)'s status on Friday, 30-Dec-2022 13:57:06 JST Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁

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     This was a burned page from a novel that we found outside the house.

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     Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁 (blakereid@mastodon.lawprofs.org)'s status on Friday, 30-Dec-2022 13:57:07 JST Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁

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     This was driving away, with our possessions reduced to what was in our trunk, wondering if we’d ever get to go back home again.

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     Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁 (blakereid@mastodon.lawprofs.org)'s status on Friday, 30-Dec-2022 13:57:08 JST Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁

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     Here are some photos. These were in the afternoon as things quickly went from “huh, there’s a grassfire aways west of us” to “uh oh.”

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     Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁 (blakereid@mastodon.lawprofs.org)'s status on Friday, 30-Dec-2022 13:57:09 JST Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁

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     More broadly, I worry we are collectively ignoring the signals that extreme weather gives us that something isn’t right with our relationship with our planet. I’m no expert on the environment, and I don’t know what to do with all of this, but at a bare minimum: I won’t ever look away. And I will try and conscientiously support whatever small, medium, and big steps we can locally, nationally, and globally take to try and correct our course.

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     Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁 (blakereid@mastodon.lawprofs.org)'s status on Friday, 30-Dec-2022 13:57:09 JST Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁

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     I hope you will too.

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     Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁 (blakereid@mastodon.lawprofs.org)'s status on Friday, 30-Dec-2022 13:57:10 JST Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁

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     But I worry. This isn’t the kind of place that has wildfires in town. We’re not up in the forests; we’re down in the grasslands east of the foothills and mountains. If it can happen here, it can happen just about anywhere there’s enough wind and enough dry weather.

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     Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁 (blakereid@mastodon.lawprofs.org)'s status on Friday, 30-Dec-2022 13:57:11 JST Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁

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     And I’m grateful as the anniversary approaches that we have several inches of snow dusting the ground and plans to go snowshoeing with having to worry about evacuating again, like we do every time the red flag warning pops up in the weather app.

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     Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁 (blakereid@mastodon.lawprofs.org)'s status on Friday, 30-Dec-2022 13:57:12 JST Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁

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     I’m grateful to the friends we were supposed to go hiking with, who put up our whole family for several days until we could come back. I’m grateful for everyone in Louisville who stepped up to help. I’m grateful for all the leadership at local and state and federal levels for sweeping in to coordinate shelter, debris removal, restoring utilities and Internet access. (I’ll never discount how much it means to see the president’s helicopter flying over your house.)

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     Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁 (blakereid@mastodon.lawprofs.org)'s status on Friday, 30-Dec-2022 13:57:12 JST Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁

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     I’m grateful to the guys from the other Louisville (Kentucky) who drove all the way out to Colorado to safely turn on everyone’s gas lines and have a friendly discussion with us about the appropriate way to pronounce Louisville (we had to agree to disagree about whether the ‘s’ is silent).

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     Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁 (blakereid@mastodon.lawprofs.org)'s status on Friday, 30-Dec-2022 13:57:13 JST Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁

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     We were lucky. The fire stopped about a couple hundred yards from our house, as the crow flies, when the finally let up. Another hour and it would have been a different story. I’m grateful for the genuine bravery of the first responders who stood against a raging inferno and slowed and ultimately stopped it. I’m also grateful to brave neighbors who came back to help the firefighters put out spot fires in fences and yards on the block next to ours with garden hoses that people had left out.

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     Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁 (blakereid@mastodon.lawprofs.org)'s status on Friday, 30-Dec-2022 13:57:14 JST Blake E. Reid 🍍🍕🥫🏁

     Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the #MarshallFire, the biggest wildfire in Colorado history, which burned a thousand homes in Louisville, our little town, and our neighbor Superior, both of which are just over the hill from Boulder (where the university is). I’ve never felt such a genuine fear of being in harm’s way as stepping out onto our driveway and watching 115 mph whip ash and debris around our suburban street. “We have to go, *right now*,” I remember saying to my partner.