The Mysterium that was not : Updated

Well, Mysterium ended up being a 24 hour event for me.
:o/
The Forest Fire that cropped up on Monday in my home town, spread wildly on Wednesday putting the neighborhood of Crossroads on Evacuation Alert. (2-3 miles from downtown Sisters)















Before : Three Sisters Mountains and Llama Ranch accross from the school.
After: See here, and here.


Ealier in the week the local Fire Chief requested additional crews and tankers, but only recieved one tanker and half the crew he requested. Fires rage all over the west, and resources are taxed.
As of Friday at 4:30 I spoke to the local sherrif's dept monitoring the fire and evacuation information, and when asked how many tankers were on hand at that time, the answer was still "one tanker." (!!!!! Hellloooooo??!!)
However, as you can see by this photo, there are at least 2 in the air over the llama ranch. Rumours are in abundance and even the media can't seem to get a grasp on the facts. Even our local Bend television station doesn't have the most up to date info.
Par example:
I met a man on the way back from Spokane, at a gas station.
He was from Bend.
He told me that the City of Sisters and two other surrounding communities had been evacuated. I knew he was bogus because I had been watching the feeds from the Newpaper located in the heart of town, and they are updating straight from the fire lines, but it shows how much inaccurate information is out there.

Thursday Crossroads was evacuated, as was the adjacent Edgington area.
Now Tollgate, City of Sisters, and my neighborhood on the East side are ready to evacuate.
We have everything we can fit in the suburban, staged in the garage and ready to be loaded.

For this reason Mysterium was, for me, a one day event.

HOW I GOT THE NEWS:

I was teamed up with Deg and his Dad and Lehsa on the photo scavenger hunt, which was delivered to the Hotel Lobby by the Mysterious F'li, some time late Thursday night or Friday AM.

We had stopped for lunch at Chili's when my histerical daughter phoned me, saying that we were evacuating and she was home alone.
Ok.
Did my blood pressure just go through the roof?

I spent the remainder of the afternoon in my hotel room watching for updates at our local newspaper's website. (nuggetnews.com) they were updating every hour or so, as info trickled in from the fire management stations. When the winds picked up, and the Black Crater Fire was upgraded to Priority Status, that is when I made the call to get on the road.

Thanks to everyone who helped me get packed up and transferred from the hotel room to the car. (They say it takes "a Village to Raise a Child?" Well it apparently also takes one to get a blabbering nitwit from her hotel room to her car!) ;O)

Thanks to Sr388 and Brandy, Alahm and Oscy for the Power Foods and Jolt Gum, and to Ran for the giNORMOUS Energy drink. I drank half of it, and then got really shakey and twitchy going through Ritzville - but it worked!
Alas, but only for so long.


(DISCLAIMER: The following is a maniacal recounting of my bizarre antics on the drive on the way home. Many activities were concocted by me, as tools to help me remain awake and alert, and under the influence of Energy Drinks and Jolt Gum - none of which I have EVER tried.)

Once again I missed my turn off at Ritzville, and wasted about an hour and a half of drive time. (!) This put me home about 3:30 am.

Despite the "energy" coursing through my veins at what might be considered toxic levels for some one of my stature, there were moments of extreme drowsiness.

You know the kind....
when you suddenly look around you and think,
"Hmmm, I am HERE already?
How did I get here? I don't remember driving here."

At such times I would turn on the radio and amuse myself by singing loudly and wrong words to many songs on the oldie station.
It occurred to me to try to immitate Fred, of B-52's fame.
Fred has this amazingly bizarre style of talking instead of singing.
If you have ever heard the B-52's then you know his odd style.
Anyway, Karen and Richard Carpenter's "We've Only Just Begun" came on about that time so I amused my self for a mile or two by backing them up, as only "me-being-Fred" could do.
That went on for quite a few songs.
I tried doing it with a country station but failed miserably and gave up.

Instead I turned on some goofy talk radio station and hurled insults at everyone.

I got out and ran around the car at a few rest stops to wake myself up.

I ran around between the aisles at a convenience store/gas station and slipped on some standing water and fell down. That managed to keep me awake for a good long while.

Around 2am, and coming down the home stretch, I became bleary eyed and rolled down all the windows and yelled at other drivers (usually truckers) going the opposite direction and yelled to the songs on the radio.

I laffed at my own jokes - which at this point were unrecognizable as jokes, or any other form of intelligent communication I am sure - but the end result was that these freakish attempts at mania succeeded in keeping me awake (along with Jolt Gum and BooKoo Energy Drink).

About 3 miles from home, the stars began to disappear and the air became "foggy."
Ash fell like snow in some places.

I left everything locked in the car.
Went into the house.
Kissed my daughter on her head and went promptly to bed.

I will go through my 16 hours worth of photos and upload the meager few that I have.
I will dream of my friends as they enjoy each other's company, and I can square with that because if I had stayed, I would have remained a basket case, worrying about home and hearth.

Have fun you guys!