California Is On Fire

Well part of it. It's really sad that so many people have to leave their homes, possibly for the last time, but let me go on to tell you how it's effecting me:

It isn't. San Diego is over 200 driving miles from me and much of the wind that's fueling the fires is blowing from me to them, so the sky is clear and smoke-free. However, athletically speaking, we are in the San Diego section of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), which governs all sports in the state. This afternoon CIF basically put a moratorium on all sports in the San Diego section--with good reason. Schools are being used as shelters, kids and families have left town, air quality is awful and many people have much more to worry about than making it to the game on time. However, that also effects those of us in the east desert. Our homecoming game is scheduled for Friday. We're supposed to play a team that's over 100 miles west of San Diego; one that's as unaffected by the fires as we are. So our homecoming game is cancelled.

For those of you not familiar with Blythe, homecoming is almost the biggest event of the year. Rather than having class reunions in the summer, we have them over homecoming weekend. There are floats, a parade and everyone and most mothers make an appearance at the game. Even people who don't care about the game or a class reunion still use it as an excuse to party and get drunk (generally speaking).

We can't invite a team from Arizona because we are banned from playing games. We can't even have a scrimmage game because the teams can't practice. So now they're talking about have the Pop Warner (basically little league for football) teams play. Who knows. There will still be a parade and all the other stuff, just no high school football game. What's a small town to do?).

Here's a little PV pride