I.

I don't know what I am going to do.  I don't know how I am gonna start over.

It's a miracle I even got out alive.  All I know is this:  I was sitting in my kitchen, listening to the latest news on the wildfire burning near me when the police came 'round, warning people to get out or we were going to die: the fire was on its way.

I threw what I could into my truck (with the help of a neighbor), grabbed my boy, put him into the truck, and motored out of there as fast as I could.  The air was thick with smoke; you could smell it plain as day.  The winds were blowing anywhere from 10 to 20 miles an hour from the south, which only added (pardon the pun) fuel to the fire.

We had the truck packed in less than a half hour.  I think it was a record.  Thank God for my neighbor ... I just pray they will be okay ...

We are now in Wichita Falls, Texas, headed to only God knows where.  As long as we are away from the fires, then that's fine with me, but I hate seeing Sethie look up at me, eyes clouded with worry.  Well, the feeling is mutual:  I don't like it any better than he does.  

Yet I can't fully relax: there are fires burning in Oklahoma as well.

We are headed north, into Okahoma.  Seth and I are both weary and exhausted.  I'm just glad we got out while we got the chance ... yet there's no guarantees about my property and home.  I am sure by now it's gone ... 

I'm just worried as all heck.  How in the world am I gonna start over, with just my son, a few possessions (including my laptop, of which I write to you now), and the clothes upon my back??

I swear God must hate Texas (or Texas folk, in general).  Why else would He not answer our desperate prayers for relief in the form of rain and/or cooler temperatures?  Some areas are under 20" of measurable rainfall: everything is dying or drying up.  People are having to ship their cows out of state (or sell them), people are dying as a result of this heatwave/drought, and people are being forced to move northward because they can no longer deal with the torrid heat or ever-present threat of fires.  Or, in my case, they have to move because the fires consumed everything in its path.

If this is a taste of what hell must be like, then I hope to God that when I die I go to Heaven.  I can't take too much more; when is enough ENOUGH??

Well, I am going to find a place to stay for the night before we journey northward into Oklahoma.  Where we will end up is anybody's guess.  Just pray for us, but most of all, pray for the people of Texas and Oklahoma.  We need a miracle; no we need much more than that: we need RAIN and we need RELIEF from this godawful drought/heatwave!!

PS: Just heard from my neighbor.  They got out in time, but our homes were destroyed.  Now what??

~To be continued.~