This is Deputy Digby Pancake. I have a question that I ask every morning before I take my first steps outside. Then I have a question when it is time for breakfast. Then I have another question when it is time for dinner. And then one more question when it is time for my treat at night. Are y’all ready for this? The persons may think I am howling.  But I am singing. Loudly for all to hear.  And almost getting kicked out of every campground so far on our trip.  It goes kinda like this…

But.  For business.  It is my job as Deputy to address it. So you know that the past week has been beyond belief. It is no secret that the fires in California, in the county that we are in, have been horrible. Awlful. And yet? Around the aforementioned times of the day, well, I have to forget about the fires for a little while. At least, put them in the back of my mind.  Most of the time, I let the persons worry for me.  But even I couldn’t ignore what was happening.  The smoke in the air wouldn’t let me.

I told the Sheriff that he needed to let the persons worry at least some for us.  But as usual, Sheriff Brickle did not take my recommendation to do this and got a real bad tummy ache on Saturday.

The persons had worried so much and talked about what we should do for so much of the time that they got upset. Should we leave or should we go? Every time we thought we should stay, another fire would come and more evacuations would come.  Every time we heard any type of siren we panicked. We couldn’t sleep at all and wondered what we could wake up to next.

In fact, Girl Person was making not much sense at all. She was sick from not being able to breathe, and to make herself feel better, she decided to get in the shower. But the shower wasn’t clean enough for her. So she decided to clean the shower before she got in the shower. Boy Person asked her what in the world she was doing and then, well, she started crying right in the shower. And she didn’t stop for a little while. Therefore, Brickle’s stomach ache. I just took a nap.

When everything seems to be falling down around you, but you haven’t been touched directly, you may feel guilty. And that is how the persons are feeling now. They want to stay and help. They waited to get back here for over five years and they dreamed about this happy place of theirs. You would think with everything happening that they would want to get out of here. But then Girl Person starts crying that she doesn’t want to leave again.

It seems, at least for now, that maybe the air will be getting better in the next few days.  The firefighters and all of the volunteers have been working themselves so hard.  In fact, at the little restaurant where we are staying, some firefighters came to get some food, and everyone started cheering and cheering!  Even Sheriff Brickle who usually demands all of the spotlight cheered too.  And he wasn’t even jealous about it.  I know.  This is a very unusual situation.

The persons were trying to decide whether we should leave now instead of our plan to leave on November 1st.  Just the thought of leaving her “happy place” of Bodega Bay makes Girl Person start crying.  Which makes Sheriff Brickle get a stomach ache.  So as long as the smoke in the air keeps getting better, we are staying here at camp until next Monday.

Boy Person spent his day Saturday driving around trying to see who needed help and supplies. Everywhere that he went, even people who had lost everything were trying to give HIM food.  They were trying to give HIM water.  And well, to say that we are impressed with this little community is putting it as light as a buttermilk stack of pancakes.  With everything going wrong in the world, this is what life is about.  No, not fires.  No, not tragedy.  But this is what people CAN be if they try, if they want to be.

As we were walking around camp, we heard an entire family talking about losing their homes.  Then, they got in their car and started driving around to each and every campsite asking who needed food.  Can you imagine t hat?  I am not so sure if I lost my dog bed that I would be so happy about it.  But I guess you don’t know until it happens to you.  And I would hope to be that way if I could.

You may think that the persons are making a mistake by staying here when danger is still a possibility.  And they won’t argue with that.  But if we have to get out of here fast, we have a plan to do so.  I know, and Sheriff Brickle knows, that they love us more than anything.  So we have been taking very short walks and doing so on the beach at night.  We have been staying inside a lot which is driving us crazy, but we know that it has to be done because of the smoke.

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So.  Will we stay till November 1?  We don’t know yet. But for this week, we will not leave the place we waited five years to come to.  Simply put? We aren’t ready.  We know that you are anxious for us to start our next venture, and it may seem like we are at a standstill.  Well, as Sheriff Brickle would say, be patient.  This last week was a very hard one to get thru.  Every time we think about it, we cry.  A lot can change in a week and it did for so many of our friends.  Their homes are gone.  But Girl Person told me that she truly believes there is nowhere like this place in the world.  As she went to the farmer’s market yesterday, she didn’t expect anyone to be there, but she was sure hoping that the bread people would be.  Four booths were set up, and she got her bread, and she got her duck eggs.  As a lady came up to one of the booths, and Girl Person asked how she was, the lady said her house was gone.  But she was smiling.  She told Girl Person that once the shock wore off, she realized this was her opportunity to start over.  This was her opportunity to have this experience to be able to help someone else in the future who would go through this same thing.

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Then, another man person said that his teacher at college had traveled all over the world and that she knew there was no place like Sonoma County anywhere.  Another lady said that she had just moved here five weeks ago and immediately felt at home.  Now, she said more than ever, this was always going to be her home. And Girl Person knew she wasn’t alone.  For whatever reason, this place is our heart.  And our hearts broke last Sunday night.  So whatever decisions come our way this week, bear with us a few more days.  We need some time to figure this out.  Are y’all ready for this?  What this is I don’t know.  But we know it will be the right decision if we take our time with it.

-Deputy Digby Pancake

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