This and That...

Our local wildfire, in Sunshine Canyon, is completely contained, and evacuation orders have been lifted.  No loss of pets or people, no loss of homes - but I'm afraid that nests, burrows, and wildlife were lost...  And there was a fiery public bus crash yesterday in Boulder yesterday; one of our friends has been charged with "careless driving."  We wish Rich the best outcome possible.
   Seek, the Spangled Bengal, with bone cancer in her jaw, is doing a little better.  I'll go spend time with her tonight and Thursday while her Mom is teaching art classes.  Seek eats well for me, and likes to be a lap cat while I'm visiting.  Then I take clients to Denver International at 4 Wednesday morning; Seek again Thursday evening; a quick visit with Pip and Squeak's people on Friday morning; and care of the chickens and cats on Dellwood begins Saturday afternoon...   But no Rosie (sigh) - I know she's in a better place where all parts of her work, but I miss our daily outings.
    In the Kentucky Derby picture, things are getting more cloudy as time goes by and the race gets nearer.  Mastery would probably be the betting favorite today - but he's out of the picture for any spring or summer racing.  The colt won the San Jacinto Stakes by almost 7 lengths, under a hand ride by Mike Smith; 10 strides past the finish line, Mike felt the colt change his movement, and pulled him up.  The colt had suffered a condylar fracture of his left fore cannon.  He's had surgery and is back in his stall in Bob Baffert's barn.  At the moment, Gunnevera has the most points earned for the Kentucky Derby; but a lot of folks are talking about Malagacy's win this weekend in the Rebel Stakes.  Here's the list of the horses with the most points:  (1) Gunnevera,  (2) Mastery - out with broken leg, (3) Tapwrit, (4) J Boys Echo, (5) Malagacy, (6) Epicharis, (7) Girvin, (8) Mont Saint Legame, (9) Practical Joke, (10) Untapped, (11) Classic Empire, (12) El Areeb, (13) Gormley, (14) State of Honor, (15) McCraken, (16) Iliad, (17) Sonneteer, (18) Adirato, (19) Cloud Computing, (20) Wild Shot, (21) Caucus, (22) Guest Suite, (23) Petrov, (24) Lookin At Lee, (25) Term of Art, and (26) Uncontested.  Many more colts have ten points or less; Gunnevera, the leader, has 64; and only 20 colts will start in the Derby on 6 May.
   Spent part of yesterday listening to the House Intelligence Committee asking FBI Director Comey about the current administration and Russia...  Things are getting very interesting.

Boulder Wildfire in Sunshine Canyon

Boulder has been extremely dry - no rain, no snow.  The drought caught up with us this morning.  A man who had to visit the bathroom at 1:40 this morning, glanced out his window and saw flames on the wall of Sunshine Canyon, to the west of town.  He called 911, the emergency number, and reported it.  Thanks to his call, reverse 911 calls started going out, and over 1,000 house were evacuated.  People and small pets can go to the East Boulder Community Center, and large animals have been evacuated to the County Fairgrounds.
   Beatrice and I awoke to heavy smoke and the smell of burning this morning.  We thought that someone had set a trash dumpster on fire - but could look out the window and see smoke billowing up directly to the west of our building.  So we immediately turned on the local news and found out about the Sunshine Canyon fire.  It's a block to the south, and then 1.5 miles to the west of us.  At this time, 12 hours after the original call, the fire is 20 % contained, and has burned 70 acres...  Luckily, no homes or buildings have caught fire.  Besides fire fighters on the ground, both helicopters and planes have been dropping water and slurry to deter the spread of the flames.  I hope it gets contained completely soon...
   Usually March is one of the snowiest months of the year in, and around, Boulder.  So far this month, we have had 1/8 inch of precipitation - a 6-hour drizzle.  Our usual high temperatures in March are in the upper 40s and low 50s; yesterday we reached 82 degrees, and the regular high temperatures have been in the 60s and 70s.  Today we have a high wind watch, typical of March.
   I picked up a client from the Denver Airport last night at 8:30, and he asked me if I thought it would snow again this year, because he was thinking about taking his snow tires off his car.  I laughed.  I told it was going to snow at the end of this month, in April, and probably the last snowfall would be the second week of May.  He was aghast - and wanted to know if I'd read that in the Farmer's Almanac.  I told him, "Nope.  I feel it in my bones."

Photos of the Sunshine Canyon fire: