Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Unreasonable anxiety

The coverage of the horrible wildfires in California has me on edge. Fire is one of the few things I'm truly phobic of. I still have nightmares about the day a 4 alarm fire broke out in the building across the street from our condo back in Maryland. I left for the grocery store and everything was fine, came back and there were fire trucks and visible flames in my neighborhood. Thankfully that fire didn't spread beyond the original building, but it was still the closest I've ever come to a destructive fire.

Now, watching news coverage of what's happening in San Diego and L.A., I'm seized with anxiety and "what if it happened here"s. After feeling horrified when I read that some people only got a few minutes notice before the fires hit their streets, I started to wonder what I would do in that situation. I know I could get Luke into the car quickly--he's never more than a few paces away from me at this point--but Jasper and the cats are a different story. The truth is that I probably couldn't corral both Codi and Arcadia without at least half an hour lead time. That terrifies me. I can't even think about the fact that my car is too small for me, the baby, the dog, and the cats to all really fit without feeling panicked.

I really should turn off the TV and stop reading online stories about the fires. First, though, I'm going to make a donation to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts and read up on wildfire preparedness. Just in case.

2 comments:

kuri, ping, the pinglet, & mini-ping said...

I don't think your anxiety is unreasonable at all. It's just one in a long list of worries that we're going to have for the rest of our lives. Yikes. :)

M said...

Welcome to "motherhood." When C was born (in 2002) people were stocking up on duct tape, plastic sheeting, gallons of water, canned goods, etc in case we were attacked by a biological weapon.

Even though the scientist in me knew duct tape and plastic sheeting wouldn't stand a chance, I was still somehow compelled to want to stock up. (I didn't, but had to fight the compulsion!)

Good for you for doing what you can and try not to worry too much!