all jacked up and nothing to do ... ha ha

Nothing to do ... ha ha ... when is the last time that happened? I always have something to do. More like several somethings. Most of them admittedly self-inflicted. Is that a word? Anyway, I just had a cup and a half of coffee so I could stay awake to do a wind load and energy report tonight. I made dinner, some yummy cabbage taco soup and fresh baked whole wheat bread, got the kids to sleep and got ready to hang in there for the long haul tonight. I got on the computer and opened the CAD file I was sent and guess what? It's an incomplete file. I should have about ten sheets and I only have four. Can't do much with that. Know what that means? Now i'm wide awake and couldn't go to sleep if I tried. So I get to sit and blog and load pictures and knit. Not such a bad thing after all. Kinda fits the day though ... it's been a strange one. If you have ever wondered what the end of times will look like, today was a bit of a peek ... or at least it felt that way to me. The big wildfire north of us has finally made it's way here. It was the strangest thing .. just like on monday but much worse ... in the middle of the afternoon it got dark as night out. I took some pictures and a little video clip to post here. On the news tonight they said the fire jumped the county line this evening. So it's officially made it's way to Columbia County. They expect it to reach I-10 sometime tonight and move down towards Gainesville. Know what's right in that path between I-10 and Gainesville? Yep ... us. Well all of Lake City actually. I don't think we have anything to worry about personally because there is a lot of town and open field between us and the fire. Still really eery around here. It was so much darker than monday when we had the similar situation of a smoke plume coming between us and the sun. The really strange thing was how it started to get light again around 7pm like the sun was coming up for the day as the smoke moved. Our dogs know something is up too. They didn't play at all today. They just layed around on the porch like lazy bones on guard.

This is stepping out the front door at four in the afternoon. See all the ash? And notice how dark it is?
See all that white stuff in the grass? Yep, that's ash too.


I took this picture while driving towards town. Four in the afternoon and everyone's headlights were on as well as all the street lights and business lights. I can't even begin to explain how strange it was to drive around town like this. When I stopped at the produce stand I had to brush the ashes off of me when I got inside.

I also took a short video clip at the house before I left that i'll post through photobucket once it's done uploading.

Here's a snippet of the latest fire update from the Lake City Journal.

Wildfires nearing Interstate 10 and U.S. 441; families evacuated from Deep Creek area

By Karl Burkhardt
Wildfires from Southern Georgia, which crossed into the corners of Columbia and Baker counties Thursday, swept southwestward and may reach Interstate 10 at U.S. 441 by 4 a.m. Friday morning. That area is the northern limit of Lake City and the site of the Target Distribution Center that is under construction.
Harvey Campbell, Emergency Management Information Officer, said a voluntary evacuation of about 20 families in the Deep Creek area, along Drew Road, began Thursday evening. By 10 p.m. the fire was only six miles north of Deep Creek and could reach that area by 2 a.m. People from an area 10 miles north of I-10 and east of U.S. 441 were sent to the Winfield Community Center.
Columbia County’s Emergency Management Center went to level 2 at about 8 p.m.
A dense cloud of smoke drifted over part of the county Thursday afternoon, from the Georgia border to Fort White. Streetlights, activated by light sensors, automatically turned on and drivers turned on their headlights.
Ash fell from the cloud of smoke. Looking like snow as it drifted to the ground. Many people reported sore throats, irritated eyes and difficulty breathing when the smoke blanketed the area.

Check the link above for the rest of the article. Also, here's a link to the SSD Fire Detection Program.