This is kinda funny. I have taken a great deal of pride in this column, and I am ALWAYS in before deadline. I always have something to write about, and honestly, the column usually just writes itself. I’m sure you can imagine my surprise when that simply didn’t happen this time. At all.

Today is Deadline Tuesday for me, and I have been staring at a blank sheet of paper for somewhere in the neighborhood of an hour. It’s not that nothing has happened for me to write about, it’s more that I can’t seem to pick an item and run with it. Pretty sure they call it “Writer’s Block”, and it sucks.

So here goes nothing, folks.

Last week, we were treated to an amazing lightshow put on by God Himself. It was amazing. It even woke me up, which is no small feat. When I woke up, I watched it for about a half hour with my cat. The raw power displayed was unimaginable. The news said there were more than 13,000 strikes during that storm. Personally, I lost count after 50. We went from stupid hot, to a phenomenal lightning storm, back to stupid hot in like, 12 hours. Amazing. Then…. we started hearing about the fires – and they were everywhere. 600+ fires across the state and some of them were massive.

Then, we started to hear about the evacuations. This wasn’t a drill – huge swaths of the state were burning and wiping out everything in their paths. People were losing their homes and their livelihoods, and we had, at best, 5% containment. Obviously it was gonna get worse before it got better. As of my writing this column, 351,817 acres have burned, with 25% containment. Two of the fires burning are the 2nd and 3rd worst in the history of the state. California was founded in 1850, so those are two of the worst fires in the last 170 years. That’s crazy.

It’s been mighty rough this past week for all of us. Heck, the last 6 months ain’t no picnic.
 
…Now imagine how rough it would be if you were homeless, living in a tent during that lightshow, and all that has happened since. Can you even imagine it? Sobering thought, isn’t it? 

Street Life exists to help those folks. The ones with no address. The ones out there surviving, day in and day out, with little to spare.  We don’t take holidays. We don’t just stay in our houses waiting for things to get better. We’re out there getting food to people that otherwise might not get a chance to eat. The NEED isn’t going away, so neither are we. We’re always looking for more like-minded people willing to commit their time, skills, or resources to help us help them. We can’t do it alone, but maybe we can with YOU. Please think about it. Help if you can. If this column somehow inspires you, check us out by clicking HERE. Volunteer if you can. Who says your help won’t create something incredible?

We’re all in this together, guys. We all play a part. Choose to be a part of the solution.

See you on the streets.