Well, I have to hand it to 2020. It is doing a first-rate job of teaching me that life is uncertain and the only thing I can control is my mindset.

We had found our Pandemic School Year groove. Julian was back at preschool and loving it. Pippa had started meeting with a pod of two other friends and loving school again. Everything seemed to be humming along.

Then the Bobcat Fire started.

The Bobcat Fire is one of the wildfires currently raging in California. It is in the San Gabriel Mountains just a few miles from our house. Our air reeks of smoke. Ash is everywhere. I can’t take the kids outside to play. We can’t go swimming in our pool or take a walk and just running errands feels like too much.

I will never take the air I breathe for granted again.

Preschool is even closer to the wildfire than our house. Last Thursday and Friday, Julian was able to go to preschool but they had to stay in their classroom the entire time. Julian did not seem to mind this. But the air quality has worsened, so school is closed now. The plan is for the kids to return on Thursday, with new air filters running in the classrooms. We’ll see about that.

Pippa’s pod has also been suspended. There are just three kids in the pod. We have been meeting at a friend’s house that is very close to the wildfire. Their air quality is so bad, they had to move in with a grandparent who lives farther away. So our sweet little second grade pod has been suspended until the wildfire subsides.

Man, this just sucks.

I’m actually in good spirits. I don’t know how, but I have somehow managed to surrender to this experience. It’s like things are so bad, I just can’t be bothered to be upset any more. The winds will blow as they blow. The fire will burn as it burns. The ash will fall where it falls. I can’t control any of it so I might as well enjoy the fact that I am alive and sharing these strange times with my family.

Still, this sucks and I feel better when I acknowledge that it sucks.

This! Sucks! So! Fucking! Much!

We were supposed to have a birthday party for Pippa in March right before the California shutdown. We finally rescheduled her birthday party for later this month. It is going to be a drive by, say hello, take a cupcake, simple affair. But now, it looks like we might have to reschedule that because of the wildfires!

Ah, geez. I can’t even get upset about that.