Fire On The Mountain!

This week we took our annual vacation to Jellystone Park in Luray, VA. The first night there arose a fierce thunderstorm with strong winds. In the morning we noticed smoke rising from the mountain in front of us (called Neighbor Mountain). Fire on the mountain! Run, boy, run!

[Newsleader.com] Dozens of firefighters hiked up steep mountain trails in triple-degree heat Friday, as efforts continued to contain a pair of unusual summer wildfires burning over hundreds of acres in the Shenandoah Valley.

Drivers headed into downtown Luray could see a white haze enveloping the top of Neighbor Mountain in Shenandoah National Park.


The fire on Neighbor Mountain was first reported Tuesday morning. The cause is under investigation. As of Friday afternoon, the blaze was not contained and had spread from 200 to 800 acres, said Shenandoah National Park spokeswoman Karen Beck-Herzog.

From what we could see only the underbrush is burning and not the tree canopy itself. If it stays an underbrush fire, it will be much easier to contain and will ultimately be "healthy" for the forest. If it becomes a canopy fire, then the trees themselves will die and it will become dangerous and difficult to contain.

It burned all week and is still burning as of this writing. At night there was an orange glow and you could see the fires burning. We had to reassure the Nodlings that we were in no immediate danger.

 It sure made for some interesting counterpoint to our vacation. What did you do this summer? Oh, the usual: went swimming, made s'mores, watched a forest fire ...

Vacation Home

For our vacation on the occasion of my sister's wedding we all stayed at this cute little Cape Cod house -- IF by little you mean a 6,000 sq ft mansion.

The bedrooms were large enough to fit entire branches of the Nod clan in them. We fit two queen size beds, two cribs, a sleeping bag and bedroll, 5 suitcases, and 7 totes into ours and still had room to walk around.

My brother fit his 5 into another bedroom. The one over the 3-car garage holds another 6 beds. The master suite has its own bed, bath, and sitting room. The side porch features a fenced outdoor shower to get off all the sand from the beach. The back porch has 3 seating areas. The living room, dining room, family room, and kitchen were all correspondingly huge.

Maybe we should trade the owner of that house for our modest little abode. Any house that can swallow 25 people without blinking is dying to have Nods in it. Then again, who wants to clean that monstrosity?

That's the kind of place that's nice to visit, but there's no place like home.

Vacations Are Not Relaxing

We slave away at our jobs, scrimp and save all year to go on that one or sometimes two week vacation. This is our chance to "get away from it all", to relax, travel, visit relatives, or just sit on the beach.

A lot of the time, we return more tired than when we left. Many times I've heard people say they need a vacation to recover from their vacation, or how glad they were to be back at work so they could get some rest. What happened to our relaxing vacation?

Travel. Travel is by far the biggest fatigue inducer. Whether you go by plane, train, or automobile, it generally involves sitting in a cramped position for a number of hours. Anyone who has ever thrown out his back will tell you that sitting is far more difficult than standing or lying down, since it puts all the weight on your tailbone. To combat this, break up your trip into manageable pieces that allow you to walk, stretch, or take a break from concentrating. Add a day on the end of your trip to rest at home and get back into your normal routine.

Sleep. Generally, on vacation you don't sleep well. Whether it is due to being in a strange bed that is harder or softer than your own, staying up later to visit with friends or relatives, or dealing with a new environment, sleep is one of the main casualties on vacation. Bringing your own pillows on vacation can help, as can that extra day at home on the end to sleep in your own bed.

Fun. Let's face it, we go on vacation to have fun. But fun has its price, and many of us overdo it in order to maximize our time away from home and work. Children are especially prone to overdosing on fun and excitement, because they don't know when to stop. They go full tilt until they drop from exhaustion. It's a good idea to schedule in some quiet or unstructured time during your vacation to spread out the fun. Having activity after activity is fun, but also taxing on mind and body.

Prayer. Did you take a vacation from God? Strangely, many of us forget to pray when we go away. The change in schedule has a lot to do with it, since we are taken out of our normal daily patterns. It takes a bit more effort to ensure God is included in our fun and vacations, but it should be normal and natural - and refreshing. We always pray for a safe journey before we leave the house, make sure there is a Church with Mass times where we are going, pray at all meals, and attempt morning and evening prayer from the Divine Office. The Nodlings like to take turns reading paragraphs from the Psalms when I can get them to sit still long enough.

Children. Kids are full tilt on vacation, which means that you as a parent on still "on". There is no vacation from kids, just parenting in a different location. If you have small children this can be a little stressful as you figure out how to keep them safe from hazards in this new location. I am forever counting heads as we go from place to place to make sure no one got accidentally left behind. Roping in aunts, uncles, and grandparents helps out here since they can "spell" you or at least help even out the adult/child ratio around things like boats, parking lots, cliffs, and Aunt Mabel's china dishes.

Don't get me wrong, I think vacations are wonderful. They provide a needed break from our work-a-day lives. They are opportunities for new and great experiences, time with our relatives, and a host of other things. But they are also there for contrast: after an exciting week of food, fun, and travel, it is a physical and psychological relief to come back to the familiar Home Sweet Home.

Workin' It

Because I can. I worked it out on a napkin, like all other great ideas ... how can it go wrong?

Yogi Is Coming

I feel it in my bones: the coming.

Or, I just looked on the calendar. The annual trip to Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park. A family fun recreational center that won't break the bank.

Not too far away, but just enough. A little like camping, a little like a resort. Mini golf, pools, log cabins, green spaces, happy faces.

Dinosaur bones, ice cream cones; camp fires and tall tales. Yeah, that's us.