Wildfire - Nature's Fury

            

Smoke wall during the Bastrop fire in September of 2011. (This photo is not mine) 

           Back a few years ago, I got excited about springtime coming.  For the second year in a row, I can honestly say that I am dreading it.  As most people in America know, 2011 wasn’t a kind year to Texas in regard to rainfall and moisture.  We experienced the worst drought in history for this state and many old timers were comparing conditions to that of the dust bowl days.  I’m sad to report that meteorologists are calling for a carbon copy of last year for us.

            (Deep Sigh)

            Used to I waited in anticipation for the warmer weather to come, the longer days, and most of all, the storm season that this region usually saw.  Last year I think we got maybe three good storms for the entire year, and if I remember correctly, one of those came in October of all months!

            For those of you who are not familiar with the way Texas fire departments work, many are run by volunteers.  In fact, men and women whose day jobs are not firefighting control around 75% of departments.  First responders hold a special spot in my heart.  My father was a Lieutenant with Woodrow Fire Department for over twenty years.  He is now a paramedic.  I see what kind of stress jobs like that do to a person, yet they still do it for one main reason – to help people.

97% of the state of Texas was declared in a drought and burn bans were issued everywhere.  About 27,000 fires broke out, incinerating almost 4 million acres of land.  The fire season started up in west Texas and progressed across most of the state.  Most know about the infamous Bastrop County fire that forced major evacuations of many towns in that area.  This fire is referred to as the most catastrophic fire in Texas history. 

            Fire departments all across the state were worn thin.  Men and women dedicated hundreds of hours to help to try to control these burns, and keep in mind, most were volunteers, not even pulling in a paycheck for their time spent out there on the front lines.  Volunteer fire fighting funds were also cut drastically in 2011, leaving people in charge of paying for their own gear, which is very expensive.  My thanks goes out to the men and women who worked hard to keep the citizens of Texas safe.  Long hours, dangerous situations, and times when it seemed impossible to put the huge walls of flames out are just a few of the things these dedicated people endured during the wildfire season. I can’t imagine what it feels like to have someone come to your home and declare a mandatory evacuation.  How would a person even decide what to take with them?  It would be horrible to think that the next time you came home that it could very well be burned to the ground. 

            I am currently in the process of writing a sequel to my novel Through Smoke that is based on the 2011 wildfire season here in Texas.  I am about halfway through with the manuscript and am really hoping that I can do the situation justice.  I’ve thought about a possible goal as to when I plan on having it published, but who am I kidding? I rarely get it done in the time I say! Right now it’s just very unpredictable with my school schedule, but I started writing this back in late November and am already half way done, so if I can keep the pace up the release date could possibly be soon!

            I will finish this blog entry with me saying a huge THANK YOU to everyone who dedicated their time during the Texas wildfire season of 2011.  With the way the weather patterns are looking for the upcoming months, it appears that we are in for some more of it for 2012.  We’ll just have to keep praying for that rain and continue to offer support where we can. 

God bless all of you first responders out there!

Beyond the Lights Weekend

This past weekend I went down to San Antonio to take part in the Beyond the Lights Celebrity golf tournament that is hosted by Kyle Chandler and Brad Leland, two stars of the show Friday Night Lights.  It is a charity benefitting athletes who have suffered from spinal chord injuries. Here is more information on this wonderful event if you are interested -

Beyond the Lights Celebrity Golf Classic

I got into San Antonio Thursday evening. We left for the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort near Bastrop early Friday  morning.  It is possibly one of the nicest golf courses I have ever seen, and I have seen/played on my share of them.  After doing a few odd jobs and eating breakfast, I got assigned to a hospitality cart. I was to drive around and ask the players if they needed water or snacks and make sure everything was okay.

I had my first encounter with Kyle when I went around to the 17th hole where he and Brad Leland were hanging out and teeing off with everyone who came through there.  Kyle saw me and called me out by name.  He asked how school had been this semester, if it was over, and how Lubbock was.  The fact that he remembered my name surprised me so much that I dang near fell out of the cart.  We chatted about Texas Tech and some things, I gave him some water, he thanked me for being there and commented on the hat I was wearing. (A Texas Tech one), and I was on my way to see if anyone else needed anything.

After driving around a bit I hung out at the 8th hole where I helped pass out Vitamin water. That is where I had an encounter with Ricky Phillips, the bassist for Styx.  At first I didn't know who he was, but I knew he was a rockstar just by how he was dressed. He called me sweetie and thanked me for the water. He was a very gracious dude.  I was there for a bit and finally went back into the clubhouse around 4 to eat.  I hadn't eaten since that morning when we had breakfast.  I was then assigned to put bags together for the gala.  Later I was told that I would be a spotter for the auction and that they would come get me when it was time.  They never came back, so I continued selling photo stills from the set of FNL.

I had my second encounter then.  Josy, a lovely girl from France who had flown there for the event wanted to meet him.  She never spotted him me, along with a friend, pointed him out.  We went up to him with her, introduced her, and took her pic with him. Kyle was so touched that she came from France that he took two pics with her.  I got a huge bear hug from him as well and took another picture with him.

The rest of the night we hung out and tried to sell more pics from the set.  We left Friday night around 10:30 back to our hotel in Bastrop.  We were so tired that when we got into the elevator to go into our room, all three of us just stood and stared at the buttons, none of us realizing we actually had to press number three to get the elevator moving.  It was a good tired though.

The next day we went back to the resort around 8:30 in the morning.  At first they had us doing odd jobs again but after I was assigned as a caddie.  We had a player's meeting and they got us caddie's together with the groups we'd be with and we got to take a picture with Kyle.  I was standing with my group and Kyle walks up with a frisbee and says to me "Gotta have a prop for the picture, you know how we actors are." and then he nudged me and winked.  He stood by me in the picture and after he looked at me and said, "Okay Jess, you tell your team to throw that frisbee straight.  Thanks for being a caddie."  And then he patted me on the back.  

I got to caddie for Jeff Rosick, aka Buddy Junior.  He's a very nice guy.  We talked about random things - from what he's working on now to what we all do when we're not hanging out at BTL.  The poor guy was suffering from some pretty bad allergies, but he was a trooper.  

After our 18 holes of frisbee golf, I tallied up the scores and we had lunch.  We sat behind Kyle.  We got to leave right after lunch and came up to him to say our goodbyes.  He actually stood up from his food and gave us monster hugs again and thanked us for helping out in so many ways.  What I really appreciate about Kyle is that he looks you straight in the eye and is very sincere.  He also introduced us to his wife Katherine.  She was very nice as well.  

It was a weekend of hard work, but definitely a weekend I will never forget. It was a weekend where the main goal was to help out this amazing charity and put something into helping those in need. 

I have been a fan of Kyle Chandler since I saw him back in the 1990's on the movie Pure Country with George Strait.  The fact that he remembered me and calls me out by name now is so surreal that it hasn't even sunk in yet.  I'm so blessed to be a part of something so great.  I can't even put it into words.