Progress

While we got a look under the roof last weekend, we still couldn’t get to a lot of the debris because of the frame. This weekend was different.

The weather over the last week was frigid. Which meant the neighbor with the equipment couldn’t get the beams cut down into manageable pieces until later in the week. We were aware of the work and chose to stay out of the way until Glenn needed to talk to us. No one likes having the “boss” looking over their shoulder as they work.

Yesterday, we got our first look.

I got a chance to paw through the ash that was once the living room, dining room, and part of my office. I found a few more treasures that I squirreled away in our stash. We were looking for keys and hoping like hell that we’d be able to locate them in the ash. I found a key but not the one I had hoped. First Reader struck out.

When we left, Glenn was busy scooping more ash out of the way.

We took a drive to see the fire damage for ourselves. Unfortunately, our route took us through old burn scars until we turned up the Poudre Canyon and ultimately reached Pingree Park.

Not prepared for snow and wind chills in the low 20s (yes, it was spitting snow even though the sun was shining), we took a few pictures and hustled back into the car. We blasted the heater for a few miles as we drove back down to town, stopping for a bite at the Mishawaka Amphitheater on the Poudre River.

We are beginning to see progress. Before long, we will get the infrastructure inspected to see what repairs we’ll need. For now, though, seeing the wreckage disappear brings mixed feelings: relief that we can begin to look forward and plan our new home; grief at seeing our lives reduced to so much ash, broken ceramic, melted glass, and twisted metal.

We look forward to building better the next time around.