Happy blazing birthday!

Denny, teaching his sixth grade
class in Chiang Mai 

Fireworks!  That's the kind of celebration my sister Kathy has always loved.  So naturally, when a major birthday comes along, she isn't going to mark it with a mega-candled cake at your local Applebee's.

And so, as mentioned in earlier posts, our plan has been that as many as can do it will go first to Chiang Mai, Thailand, where Kathy's son Denny is teaching sixth grade at an international school, and then -- for the actual celebration -- we (including Denny and his young daughter) will fly to Bali where others, with less free time, will join us for a week long family frolic in the sun, ocean, and jungle.  Returning from Bali to Chiang Mai, some of us will also stop en route for a couple of days in Cambodia, to explore the ruins at Angkor Wat.

That was the general plan.  Pretty exciting, but apparently a little tame for Kathy.  So she managed to dial up the seismic activity on Bali, causing a large area around the volcano Agung to be evacuated in expectation of an imminent eruption.  And then she waved her wand, causing northern California to burst into flame -- a wave of the wand that was a bit too exuberant, as her own house burned to the ground.

But losing your hearth and home is no reason to change plans.  She flew off to Chiang Mai on Tuesday.  I -- my head reeling -- will be departing Seattle in three days, on  Monday, to join her, Denny, and other celebrants.  As the schedule of coming events now stands, everyone will all show up on Bali on October 22, where we will remain for a week, barring some eruptive disaster, in a rented beachside home.

Although Kathy lost her home in Sonoma, I'm happy to relate that her Sonoma area friends mostly seem to have fared better, and that the fire danger -- although still worrisome -- has improved.  And Agung on Bali, still muttering to itself, has so far refrained from erupting, or even from showing increased signs of eruption.

Always the optimist, I'm eagerly awaiting the trip.  It will be fun to talk to Denny and find out how he likes teaching at a Thai school (indications are that he loves it), and it will be fun to toast Kathy's birthday as the ground quakes beneath us, smoke rises on the horizon, and lava threatens to burst forth at any moment. 

As they say, no one on his death bed ever wished that he had spent more birthdays eating cake at Applebee's.