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Update: I kept on Googling, and found the Southwest Coordination Center website with breaking fire news for New Mexico. They are calling it the Capulin Fire. It is 60+ acres as of 4:50 pm today. Also it looks like it started today, at least this site says "new start" this afternoon around 1:30.

From the site:

5/21 1650 SNZ...Capulin Fire, BAP. Aerial observers estimate fire size at 60+ acres , burning on mesa tops and in stringers of pine. Torching and spotting are observed fire behavior as winds continue to be main control problem.

5/21 1525 SNZ...Capulin Fire, BAP. Fire size is estimated at 25+ acres. Ten Park personnel are staffing the fire. The Santa Fe Hot Shots will be ferried to the fire via helicopter.

5/21 1400 SNZ...Capulin, BAP. Fire size is estimated at approximately 10 acres. Two Park personnel are presently on the fire. Fuels are pinion pine/juniper with a grass understory. Observed fire behavior includes spotting. Steep ground presents hazards to firefighters. Two Hot Shot crews and a second airtanker are ordered (35 45 28 x 106 19 46).

5/21 1347 SNZ...New Start. Capulin, Bandelier NM. Fire is located 23 miles west of Santa Fe, NM. One airtanker has been committed.

Also, they quote Susan Sontag calling depression as "melancholy minus its charms." I like that - it really bothers me everytime I hear someone say that depression is perhaps a natural state for people, and that antidepressants make us flat and unnaturally happy (which contradicts the idea that they make u flat and feelingless). Some people seem to think being depressed is more artistic, more in touch with life's realities, not pretending everything is ok. I think those people have never actually experienced depression, as there is a big difference between feeling kind of down and dark and writing angsty poetry, versus not being able to snap out of feeling like shit all the time, or even worse, like the woman in the article, feeling nothing at all.

Anyway, the article was a good read, and i find always find it fascinating when people figure out a little something more about how our brains work. I'll end with a quote from the article:

For those of us who've never known depression, recognizing it may help us see depression not as a dead absence but as a live affliction. We might even stop indulging the romantic notion of depression as intrinsic to one's identity. For this notion, too, was tested by Mayberg's experiment. When a steady, 4-volt thrum calmed these patients' anguish, they did not lose their identities. They regained them, feeling again the engagements with the world that most define them: flowers for the gardener, lightness for the cyclist and, for Deanna, a long-missed connection to others.

From Wikipedia:

A cytokine storm is a potentially fatal immune reaction consisting of a positive feedback loop between cytokines and immune cells. When the immune system is fighting pathogens, cytokines signal immune cells such as T-cells and macrophages to travel to the site of infection. In addition, cytokines activate those cells, stimulating them to produce more cytokines. Normally this feedback loop is kept in check by the body. However, in some instances, the reaction becomes uncontrolled, and too many immune cells are activated in a single place. The precise reason for this is not entirely understood. Cytokine storms have potential to do significant damage to body tissues and organs. If a cytokine storm occurs in the lungs, for example, fluids and immune cells such as macrophages may accumulate and eventually block off the air passageways.

It's possible that a healthy immune system is more of a liability with bird flu. The idea being a less responsive immune system wouldn't get you into this feedback loop, at least not as badly. Or something.

Dad shared some stories about grandpa and played a great song he had written called Critical Mass. He really brought memories of grandpa to life - funny ones and noble ones. Grandpa as it turns out wasn't a staunch Republican like I always assumed. He wrote these amazing letters to Senator Romney in MI about civil rights in the 60's and was actually quite politically active in that way. But nobody knew it till dad found the letters. Grandpa was also passionate about trying to asve this great old tree, the Copper Beech, in downtown Plymouth. And Grandpa was stupid and silly sometimes too - like when he stuck this old-style bottle cap on his cheek and ended up with a perfectly formed bright red hickey. I like to imagine what he said the next day at work!

I don't have a whole lot of memories of grandpa. I always lived thousands of miles of away except for my first year of life, which of course I'm not going to be remembering.

I have a fond memory of visiting when I was a kid and helping Grandpa out with the yard, which was one of his pride and joys. He paid me one penny for each walnut thingy I picked up. Little capitalist Rachel was totally obsessed with gathering those things. The yard was beautiful - full of trees and with a beautiful stone wall running through it that Grandpa built to deal with the sloping yard. He was a meticulous craftsman.

Dad told this story of driving out to the house one day about a year or so ago. There was a walker in the bushes, and a ladder leaning up against the two-story house. He walked inside and found Grandpa taking a nap. When dad asked what grandpa had been up to, he said "Someone has to clean the gutterz!" Dad said Grandpa felt more comfortable on the ladder then the ground after he got Parkinson's disease. But everyone else worried!

I also am really proud of him for his accomplishments at Ford without ever getting a college degree. He was the resident engineer of multiple Ford plants simultaneously, and he was trained as an engineer at a Ford Trade school. I remember when I was still at the University of Washington I saw grandpa once. We talked about my math classes - the usual engineering mix of Diff Eq and the like. We got to bond over that - he had taken many of these courses himself while at Ford and had really liked taking them too.

I was also really glad for the chance to see many of my relatives, on both sides of my family - Grandma, Dad, Brooke (who flew out from WA), Aunt Nancy, Uncle Dave, Great-aunt Midge, my cousins Jeff & Eric & Danny & Betsy, my new second cousins (and the "old" ones, too :-), and Liz and Gary (first-cousin once removed i believe is the term).And everyone else. It was so nice to get to talk to everyone and try to help out a little. I'll miss you Grandpa.

First picture is of the Kivisto's.

Second picture is Brooke holding Kerrigan.

Last picture is me holding Kerrigan, and all of us cousins posing together.

from United's website

Dates and cities impacted

Traveling on March 19-20: (with tickets purchased on or before March 19)

To and from the following city/cities: Denver, CO

Summary of reaccomodation policy changes All United®, United Express®, TedSM and United code-share flights are covered under the policy. For customers currently en route who would like to adjust a return trip: Rules and restrictions regarding standard change fees, advance purchase, day or time applications, and/or minimum stay or Saturday night-stay requirements have been waived. For customers who have not begun travel: You may make one change to your travel plans without change fees or advance purchase requirement for the same itinerary. For a new itinerary, you may make one change without change fees. Rescheduled travel may be subject to higher fares if it does not meet original rule and booking codes restrictions or is a new itinerary.