Heck of a week!
Nine days ago the Boulder fires took place about ten miles south of where we live in Longmont. The big Marshall fire blazed in Louisville Colorado and the very corridor where the fire blasted through the neighborhood near Harper Lake and the Recreation Center are right next to the Hunters Ridge Townhome complex where we lived for seventeen years.
We bought our first home as a little two bedroom starter home, and ended up staying simply because we loved the location.
We were right on the bus line into Boulder and our whole lives took place within that one mile space on South Boulder road with our church Stake Center right up the street and Pauls work next door. We were able to manage with one car and a couple of bikes with a burley trailer during most of those years and I did so much shopping on my bike with toddlers in the back that I often had friends tell me they saw us biking up the big hill next to South Boulder Road.
Our children attended school at Louisville and Coal Creek Elementary when we were not homeschooling, as well as the Peak to Peak Charter school in Lafayette where three of our kids graduated high school. Our church congregation also adopted Harper Lake right up the road from our townhouse and we spent many happy hours doing Saturday morning cleanups while walking slowly around the lake picking up trash and weeding, followed by donuts and juice when the work was done.
Paul was Elders Quorum President during these years and so it was his habit to go buy the treats beforehand and then set up a makeshift table from our car to share snacks with our ward family.
We went on so many ward campouts up to Rocky Mountain National Park, Homeschool support group gatherings at the church, field day for homeschoolers at the Cottonwood Park and I organized a Birth Conference that took place right where the fire roared through the neighborhoods next to the rec center.
Three families that we have known intimately completely lost their homes. And many others were deeply affected by this event.
I grabbed video and still shots and crafted two movies set to classical music to display a bit of what happened on that fateful day.
A second fire blazed about four miles west of us here in Longmont on the same day and I was glad to be able to thank one of the firemen who fought it, on Twitter.
These past nine days both my husband and I have been quite ill. There was so much particulate in the air that we could feel the debris in our eyes. We kept our condo completely enclosed with air purification and humidifier blasting the whole time, but we both had nasty colds right after the fire was contained. Thankfully it snowed the day after the fire and that really helped cleanse the air better than anything else could have.
I crafted quite a bit of content these past few weeks on my blog and shared a variety of posts on Twitter and Instagram around the January 6th anniversary and the recent Covid developments.
I also produced several podcasts on Calling HERE.
Two weeks ago I responded to Matt Taibbis four part deep dive substack about Louden County and was able to participate on his Callin show where we talked about it.
Education issues are near and dear to my heart and I was a dedicated activist against the Common Core rollout while President Obama was fundamentally changing our health care and education systems.
Here are a few posts if you want to go check them out and the comment I left on Matts Stack is below.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CYec_9il7jA/?utm_medium=copy_link
I listed to Joe Rogan interview Malone and Dr. Peter. Breathtaking how much reach he is having.
I hope you are having a great day.
Click on the image to listen or HERE on Callin.
Comment on Taibbis Stack:
This was the line that had me chortling out loud...
“Parents’ voices are critical to the success of our education system,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said, in a statement that read like a hostage note, adding, “They are our children’s first, and most influential teachers.”
Hostage note? Ha...
When I was a part of the Utahns against Common Core group we all experieneced an "education" in what so called parental involvement looked like.
I recorded it for posterity on my blog. The left have their tactics and they use them.
Please google The Delphi Technique for Consensus.
I attended the Utah State Conference on Education. Here is my AAR.