Anniversarying

It's January 8, 2026. The official anniversary of the fires is January 7, but not for me. Me and mine escaped the inferno in the wee hours of the next day, so January 8 is my anniversary.

When I was a kid I heard a song called something like "It Never Rains In Southern California." I thought, "Man. How do they live without rain?" Of course it was just a song and the Southland gets plenty of rain in the rainy season. But it's not long before locals start complaining. As in, the next day. Californians love their sunshine. It's why the whole population of Wyoming moves here every year. (Yeah, the whole population of Iceland moves out, but I digress).

This year it began raining almost at the turn of the calendar. And it rained. And it rained. And it rained. Atmospheric rivers, one after the other. And I loved it! People were worried about mud slides but not me. (Fortunately they didn't materialize and I look a lot less cold hearted).

This year the ground was soaked. This year the brush was soggy. This year the power company was attentive. This year, I gave thanks.

I think I said it before, but I'll say it again. We were lucky. Our house was damaged but not burned to the ground like almost every other house on our street. For those people the tribulation continues and I don't want to diminish their plight. I will say, no matter the gravity of loss, everybody felt something last year. All our neighbors, people we didn't know, strangers across town. Everybody. And after a couple months the story fell off the front pages and people forgot. Not us. We couldn't.

We left at four in the morning January 8 for what we thought was a couple days. It took eight months to make our house habitable again. Like I said, we were lucky. But that doesn't mean we didn't go through something.

I'm thankful for the community that survived. The communal experience that, in a sense, made friends of strangers. I'm thankful for the silver lining that's rebuilding our flicker shy neighborhood. I'm not thankful for the fire that triggered it all. That we could have done without.

So, on this anniversary I want to say thank you to God for the torrential downpours that made sure no repeat performance was in the offing. Thank you, God.

Be blessed. Resist when you must (fityfity.one) and know America is kind and generous at heart, no matter the current climate.