Saturday, November 19, 2011

Oh, Reno.

So the west side of Reno burned yesterday. Our local paper has extensive coverage of the fire. It got uncomfortably close to a friend's house, and my heart goes out to all the people who lost their homes or had to evacuate, but thankfully I'm totally fine. It was 20 miles south of me, on the other side of Peavine. It's been a really hard year for the region - the worst unemployment in the nation, horrible housing market, crazy IHOP shooter, air race crash, and now a huge fire in one of the nicer parts of town.

But up here in my scrubby little neighborhood, all was well. I did not even know there was a fire til I saw it on Facebook - no smoke was visible up here. We just had to deal with the insane wind. Winds of 30-40 mph from the south, with gusts up to 60-70. (The fire was so bad because they couldn't get any aircraft up to help fight it.)

You know those shrink-wrap window film insulation things? I put those on all the windows a couple weeks ago and they worked great. The whole house was much easier to keep warm. Yesterday they blew in :( Tons of dirt came in too. I packing taped the window film back down because I am one classy broad.



14 comments:

  1. So glad to hear you are OK. When I heard about the fire, I thought of you immediately.

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  2. Wow, I hadn't heard about the fire. Like you said, tough year.

    I used to use the shrink wrap too, and it was very efficient. But how did it "blow it"? Did you have it on the *inside* of your windows? (That's where it's supposed to go.) If so, you must have some nasty air leaks around your window jambs!

    I've been known to resort to the packing tape solution, too, but the tear culprit was usually small, and fuzzy, with claws (and said meow!)

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  3. I am so glad the fire stayed away from you. How awful :(

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  4. ES - yup, it's on the inside. The windows are unbelievably leaky, and the wind was just blowing so hard against the house yesterday that it pushed the film off the sticky tape.

    You would not believe how dusty my house gets on a daily basis. :(

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  5. I saw the news about Reno fires on FB as well, but your FB status was all fun and games (literally, you slacker!), so I didn't worry. But it's good to hear that you're actually okay.

    And yes, the reason that the shrink-plastic comes off of windows is almost always feline. Bad kitty!!!!

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  6. We worried about you yesterday,too. Didn't know where around Reno you were, but very glad you were unaffected - except by wind. We can empathize with you there. This old lodge is a great big sieve in the wind - which blows constantly from early Nov. thru April, all the way up to 100 MPH (you got it, tornado force!) - so we shrink wrap, packing tape, ... then staple the tape in place. Works pretty good, until spring and you have to wear your hands out pulling all those staples!!!
    Juanita

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  7. Aarene - heh, Castleville is unusually captivating.

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  8. Can't imagine - fire is a nightmare... Stay safe & warm!

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  9. Gee-I hadn't read anything about it. So glad to hear you and your place is okay. Very sad for the people who lost homes though.

    Those sound like some pretty leaky windows. The windows on our ranch house (the place in South Dakota) are so bad that we have to plastic from the outside in the winter.

    I had misgivings about the cost of replacing all of the windows on our house here in Colorado, but it has really made a difference. Whew! I would have felt ridiculous spending that much money and not have been able to tell the difference.

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  10. When I saw news of the Reno fire I was hoping it was nowhere near you. I was reading stories of firemen banging on doors in the middle of the night to get people to evacuate and imagined you assembling the menagerie as the sky glowed red.

    In other words, glad to see you update, glad that everyone's ok, still feel horrible for those that don't.

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  11. I think window replacement is in your future if you're staying there. That's horrible that it was so windy the plastic blew off on the inside!

    I'm very glad your friend and their place is ok. Fire is bad.

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  12. A bad year for sure.
    I hate the wind even more than snow or cold. Living in an arid area, I worry about fire. I also get the how-would-I-haul-to-the-vet fear when it's blowing 60mph for a day or too.

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  13. Grrr..that last comment was from me. I keep forgetting to log out of my work google account to comment on blogs. *sigh*

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