Fire season on the horizon

When the Ol' Columnist began checking his old e-mails yesterday, one stood out from Saturday, August 16, 2003 and even though it was dated, it holds true today as the scorching sun continues to beat down on my valley and throughout the Okanagan:
It read: "I'm glad things are starting to get back to normal near your place. It was a strange drive to Penticton this morning, watching the yellow water bombers dip into the lake before dropping a fresh load of water on the Okanagan Mountain blaze. The fire, which began last night, had spread all around the mountain by mid-afternoon, blanketing nearby Peachland and Kelowna in a thick cloud of smoke. I've driven through burnt out Louis Creek and past the blackened hills near Whispering Pines -- but neither compared to the eeriness of my home town filled with wildfire smoke. Anyway, I'm sure you know the feeling after the events of this strange summer. Signed, David.
Besides the e-mail, David forwarded a story he had written for August 6, 2003. It read, in part: "Black smoke still curls from patches of Shea Alexander's backyard nearly a week after a devastating wildfire started alongside Highway 97 a stones throw from the teen's house. It's suspected the fire started after a driver flicked a lit cigarette out the window. Alexander, 15, stood in his backyard Wednesday surveying the blackened hillside his country home, a 10-minute drive from Falkland. He ventured up a narrow dirt road toward the highway to inspect what's left of his step father's workshop."
In a strange twist of fate, both the e-mail and the story were written by David Wylie, now the managing editor of the Vernon Daily Courier, and Shea Alexander, now age 17, happens to be the Ol' Columnist's grandson.
Since the 2003 fires, there has been a sense of "it could happen again," for the condiitions are very similiar to 2003 -- the oppressive heat and, of course, "idiots" continue to throw lit cigarettes out of car windows.
ANOTHER VIEW OF 'THE DAY FROM HELL': Wesley and Stacey Campbell, founders of Revival Now ministries based in Kelowna, were seriously impacted by the 2003 inferno. This is a portion of what they wrote for Canadian Christianity. com:
"For us, the whole fire ordeal has been -- to put it bluntly -- quite hairy! We were on holidays up north for a fishing trip with our friends at Stewart's Lodge, when the fire began. On Saturday, August 16, lightning struck in the centre of Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park, 20 miles southwest of Kelowna. Fanned by 70 kilometre per hour winds, the fire began to grow quickly. The location of the fire was directly across the lake from the house at which we are presently now staying (since we were evacuated).
"By Monday, August 18, the fire had grown to more than 2,200 hectares. It was starting to grow out of control, even with 40 firefighters, and helicopter and water bombers fighting it. Some 45 residents on Lakeshore Road were evacuated, as well as all the cabins at Chute Lake Resort.
"... As we drove home on Friday, we had no way of knowing what was coming. Really, no one expected it. We tried to call home many times during the nine-hour trip, but all the telephone lines were jammed. We had no way of knowing that Friday was turning into what reports would later describe as 'The Day from Hell.'
CUNNINGHAM IN THE RUNNING? On May 17, Juliette Cunningham had a "good showing" as the NDP candidate against the B.C. Liberal Party incumbent Tom Christiansen. While she lost in the provincial election, Cunningham told me yesterday she's seriously considering running for city council, whenever an election is called. So the political season is far from over for Cunningham, who has been serving as a school trustee for the past eight years. When I broached the subject of her running for Vernon mayor, she apparently has already scuttled that idea.
`REMEMBER ESKIMO PIES (From Uncle John's Bathroom Reader): Christian Nelson owned a candy and ice cream store in Onawa, Iowa. One day in 1920, a kid came into the store and ordered a candy bar ... and then changed his mind and asked for an ice-cream sandwich ... and then changed his mind again and asked for a marshmallow nut bar. Nelson wondered for a minute why there wasn't one candy-and-ice cream bar to satisify all the kid's cravings -- and then decided to make one himself: a vanilla bar coated with a chocolate shell. Once he figured out how to make the chocolate stick to the ice-cream, he had to think of a name for his product. At a dinner party, someone suggested "Eskimo" because it sounded cold. But other people thought it sounded too exotic -- so Nelson added the word "pie."
HERE'S ANOTHER ONE FROM 'UNCLE JOHN': From 1968 to 1979, Dock Ellis pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Texas Rangers, and New York Mets. He won 138 games and played in twoWorld Series, but his biggest achievement was the no-hitter he pitched as a Pirate on June 12, 1970. Fourteen years later, Ellis revealed he'd accomplished this feat while under the influence of LSD.
FINALLY, ZOOM! ZOOM! What are you doing this weekend? If you're a CASCAR fan, then Sun Valley Speedway, a few miles from the Ol' Homestead, will be THE PLACE to be. Let's see, Friday schedule starts at noon with the gates open to VIP and pre-paid ticket holders and general admission at 1, with practice sessions from 1:30 to 3:45 p.m., time trials at 6 and 2 x 100-lap qualifying races at 7. And that's not all, for following the races, one of this Ol' Boy's favorite performers, Lee Dinwoodie, will be on stage ... On Saturday, more of the same, with the 300-lap CASCAR main event at 7 ... The Ol' Columnist will be there; stop by and say, "howdy."