Update:
Gonna update you guys and show some more pics from Tues. Sorry, no new pics...I'll explain.
We are not alone. Over 1,400 homes have been destroyed in this fire, and the count continues to climb.
Drove out from Austin this morning, but the area around my home was completely locked down. We tried the back way from which we accessed the power line easement to hike down the last time, but the state troopers wouldn't let us get even close to that neighborhood again.
The mood has changed with law enforcement now that the state and feds are on the scene. The authorities aren't local, so while they may be sympathetic, they don't really show it, and they damn sure aren't going to bend any rules.
Oh, there was almost no smoke anywhere. Blue skies. The only smoke I could smell was coming from my stupid clogs from the last time I walked through the ash. I'm going to get a pair of work boots today...
So bottom line is, no duck update. Sorry. We had even gone down to Tractor Supply Co. and bought them a new sack of their favorite feed and a self-feeder to tide them over.
Maybe tomorrow... As long as some hungry raccoon or other predator doesn't get them, I think they'll be fine, and they'll certainly stick around, since we left them with access to their larger pond that, thank God, may Dad and I had just finished enough to fill with water about a week before.
Here's a photo I took of them right before I left the fire zone:
Anyway, after our failure, my Dad and I went down to the Convention Center, which is where we got registered as victims, or whatever.
We happened to be there during the noonish press conference, which featured some good news for some, as they are letting some folks back into their neighborhoods, but no good news for me. People in the crowd were really expressing lots of frustration, and shouting down the officials at times with questions.
Anyway...
I'm overwhelmed by all the responses. Thanks so much to all of you that care.
verbum said:
Was your portfolio on film? Digital may be recoverable if the hard drives can be accessed, will probably cost some bucks.
Sorry about the loss.
This is hindsight but I have scanned all my old film photos and upload them and my digital photos to a storage service. I store the digital in RAW format. I use Skydrive right now for viewing photos since it is free. For RAW, I use
http://www.fotki.com/us/en/ is $30 a year unlimited and accepts 10 different file types. You can download via FTP which is nice.
I live in town but a house fire or theft could cause the loss of quite a few years hobby results.
I had lots of stuff scanned, and on my laptop and the one hard drive I had in my bag. It's not a total loss of images. I'm probably only missing about 25% of the stuff I had digital at some point.
But there were a lot of things I didn't have scanned. Fine art stuff, especially, that was done all in the darkroom by me. (I did a lot of fine art style stuff back in the day, with all the old archival techniques and everything. I used to do the Santa Fe workshops)
And then there's the actual physical portfolios themselves. All custom books that cost probably around $300 each. All different kinds from different stages of my career, ect. I'm really pissed that I lost my transparency portfolio the most. It was just a beautiful box and filled with just gorgeous 8x10 transparencies, shot from large format. Old school lightbox presentation as all hell, but it really made an impact to show it to people.
I will do an online storage service in the future. I'll look into that service. Thanks!
seanoff said:
Best of luck pristine.
I too have been thru losing everything, it sucks and you will recover but it will take time and you may find that smoke (even from a bbq) might take you back to the feelings from that day. Just roll with it, don't think you are being stupid or whatever, it is normal.
I plan on testing that out really soon. I'm craving BBQ. You can't keep a Texan away from his smoke...
seanoff said:
I like living in aus, all the fire departments are state based. So if there is a fire, everyone can respond, rather than be constrained by an arbritrary line. Also there are state and federally funded bush fire brigades which exist in nearly all small communities, staffed by volunteers who know the local conditions and are often protecting their own and their friends property, so they are really involved.
The cooperation here is actually amazing. Today we saw firemen and equipment from everywhere.
And when I say everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE. On our way to lunch we saw the Midnight Sun Hotshots--smokejumpers from ALASKA, in their armored trucks, and other crews from New Mexico, Colorado, Utah. Fire crews and sherriff's deputies from all over Texas were brought in...there were people helping from all over the continent.
I think it was just a situation where the fire was moving so fast with the winds that there was just no way they could've gotten enough people in in time to get ahead of it.
Manos: The Hans of Fate said:
Pristine, if you need any help finding forms for aid or doing insurance claims just let me know. I'm not Texas admitted, but I am pretty good at finding forms and/or info.
I know the rest of LawGAF is ready to help in any way they can too.
Thanks a ton. I hope it goes smoothly. I have a lawyer buddy here in Dallas, and an insurance adjuster who is an old frat brother of mine, and they are ready to go to way, but all indications from the insurance company so far is they are just going to sign off on a maxed-out check for the amount of our coverage.
But I do appreciate the offer to muster the GAF dogs of legal war...
Houston3000 said:
When I glanced at your thread title I read it as "My Parent's. Gone." and read the OP with much angst. Glad everyone's safe and alive, even the ducks - sorry about your house
.
Yeah. That's what I'm trying to focus on now, and whenever the regrets of things i failed to do and failed to grab slip into my mind.
