62 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
62 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
---
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layout: post
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title: "Happy Anniversary"
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tags:
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- santarosa
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- sonoma
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---
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One year ago today, I watched the Sonoma county fires pour over Shiloh ridge
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towards the Fountaingrove neighborhood. I wrote about the experience, and
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subsequent evacuation in "[Watching fire
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come down the mountain](/2017/10/09/fire-coming-down-the-mountain.html)".
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The response across Sonoma county to the fires was as monumental as the fires
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themselves, and for my part, I spent the next two weeks working with old and
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new friends to build and support [Sonoma Fire Info](http://sonomafireinfo.org)
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to strive to get as much accurate information to our fellow residents as
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possible.
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When we decided to close down our flash-mob style activism, I wrote a bit more
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about the scope of the fires and some of my experience in "[This is your
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reality now](/2017/10/23/this-is-reality.html)."
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We were fortunate not to be directly impacted, but impact of the fire is within
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arms length for everybody up here. The woman who led some classes my wife and I
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attended earlier this year, lost her house in Glen Ellen. My former next door
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neighbor, who helped me with my truck every now and again, moved because he was
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finally able to buy a house in Coffey Park, which then burned down. My friend's uncle lost his house up
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off Mark West Springs Rd, being under-insured to rebuild in Sonoma county, he
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moved his family and business to Oregon. Just last week, one of the guys
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helping to clean up [our water
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damage in the office](/2018/10/08/setbacks-for-startup-sonoma-county.html),
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mentioned that he had also lost his house in Coffey Park. For the weeks I
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worked on Sonoma Fire Info, I lived and breathed disaster response and
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fire information dissemination. Much of that time is imprinted in my memory
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unlike many other experiences before it.
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For many of us, there are two Sonoma counties: that which was before, and that
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which was after the fires.
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Suffice it to say, October 9th changed me.
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---
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Seven and one years ago today, I stood on a grassy hill overlooking vineyards
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somewhere in Sonoma county, surrounded on one side by a raucous group of
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friends and on the other by a raucous group of family. Heart pounding beneath
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the only properly fitting suit I own, my wife and I married.
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When I think about the man I was then, I can only smile at how much our
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relationship has changed us both for the better. I share with every friend who
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will listen some of my thoughts on the value and importance of marriage. I can
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safely say that neither of us would have grown to be the people we are today
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without one another. And we continue to learn and challenge each other with
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each passing day. The commitment isn't simply to each other, but to the more
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abstract concept of "us", which helped me understand and prioritize so much
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differently than I did before.
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Our things, our house, our future, our family. Our life together.
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Suffice it to say, October 9th changed me.
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