Ke Kaumaha

NOTE: This is a repost from my other blog, Wild, Wicked, & Wacky. "Ke Kaumaha" means sadness in the Hawaiian language.

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My heart aches.

DH and I had to postpone our honeymoon because he was going through chemotherapy the year we were married. So, in 1996, we decided to have a spectacular trip to Hawaii to celebrate not just our wedding, but his survival.

We spent the first week on O'ahu and the second on Maui.

We fell in love with Maui. We stayed at a hotel just outside of the historic town of Lahaina. The town, the people, and the food were all so amazing.

And I can't say anymore without crying.

Because the town is literally gone.

A wildfire spurred by drought and the winds of Hurricane Dora swept through Lahaina late Tuesday and Wednesday. By Thursday morning, the town was a pile of ash and debris.

If you wish to help, I suggest the Maui Strong Fund.

This is a situation where thoughts and prayers aren't enough.

Back to Writing Again

After five days of transferring files to my new laptop, I have everything I need to get back to writing. There were more than a few hiccups along the way, and there's still some apps I need to install. However, the only things left are my entertainment files, music, movies, books, etc.

But the big thing is finishing the three short stories I meant to complete last week before the old laptop started acting up. For those who have been checking on a daily basis, I haven't set up the preorder for Too Many Fish in the Sea (Justice Thalia #5) since I have not finished it yet.

Spells and Sleuths, the first of the rewritten Millersburg Magick Mysteries, is done, but it won't be released to the general public until the Kickstarter backers get their copies. And that won't be until I finish Analyze Me and Demons Run at Halloween. It's easier, and fewer headaches for both me and the backers, to send out everything at the same time.

And I do have a hard deadline to get everything finished. I considered retreating to one of our local Starbucks (yes, the second independent store has opened in our town) in the mornings. However, smoke from the Canadian wildfires has flooded the area again, which makes going outdoors darn uncomfortable.

*sigh* Just when I start to feel comfortable going out in public again...

Almost There If I Can Breathe

Yesterday afternoon, I finished packing and labeling the last dozen Kickstarter boxes to be shipped. However, I didn't make it to the post office today.

Northwest Ohio is under an Orange-Level air quality alert from the wildfires in Ontario and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The photo above from the Australian wildfires a couple of years ago gives you an idea of what our supposedly clear blue sky looks like right now.

I've been dealing with itchy eyes and a stuffy nose since I ran a bunch of errands yesterday morning. I'll need to dig out my pandemic masks before I take the last boxes to the post office tomorrow morning.

I really, REALLY hope we get the rain forecasted for Sunday.

Reality Sucks

Don't know if you've read my profile or watched the news, but I live in Texas, specificly the Houston Metro area. We're the green area of the state, just off the Gulf of Mexico, so usually there's high humidity in the summer.  Humidity so high we practically have thunderstorms every afternoon.

Not this year though.

This year the entire state is suffering form one of the hottest summers and the worst droughts on record. When you consider ninety-two degrees Fahrenheit to be cool, it's bad.

Wildfires are something that's normally a problem just in west Texas.

Right now there's a wildfire north of the city around the little town of Magnolia. We woke up to yesterday morning to what we thought was light fog. No such luck.

GK and I tried to walk the dog, but the smoke got so thick we had to turn back.  I just did laundry and you could still smell it on our clothes.

I'm not belittling the awfulness of losing a home, like a lot of folks in Magnolia have, or even more tragic, the city of Bastrop.  I'm scared that it'll happen to me too.

The possibility of a wildfire in the middle Houston is very real.  Half the trees in Memorial Park are dead thanks to the drought.  The Addicks Resevoir, which is normally a gigantic swamp, has already had one fire that burned approximately 700 acres.  Other parks and green areas around Harris County are in even worse shape. All it'll take is a spark in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I think I'd rather sit through Hurricane Ike again. Three years ago, I knew it would be over by morning.

There's no end for this disaster in sight now.