It would seem that I'll be signing up for beginner hockey classes, starting on Sunday. I've been wanting to do this for a couple of years now, and the finances have finally aligned in such a way that I can do it. But I'm totally scared. I'm a wuss, and I don't really like looking stupid in public. I'm incredibly gunshy about it because my weight makes me a fairly public spectacle on a daily basis as it is. I'm not super thrilled about the idea of being the elephant on ice skates in the class.

I did a "give hockey a try day" in February, and it was fun, but really really hard. And they made me fall down, which apparently is my "thing". I don't want to fall down. I don't like falling down. I don't like not being able to get back up after I've fallen down.

But I've been talking about this for years now.

I have skates, and gloves and some fairly expensive hockey pants, as well as some borrowed elbow pads and shin guards. All sitting in my closet or the trunk of my car, where they are not doing any good to anyone.

So I'm going to toughen up, summon all of my courage, and possibly my bottle of happy pills so I don't cry if the coach yells at me, and I'm gonna do this thing. And I'm gonna rock it out.

I'm a fairly sensitive person, but I don't often cry over the plights of people I don't know. Hallmark, Kleenex, and Walgreen's commercials, sure, Grey's Anatomy almost every week, but not news stories about people I've never met.

Until today.

Today there are two things. One is the tragic accident that resulted in the death of the daughter of contemporary Christian recording artist Steven Curtis Chapman. I'm not going to write about that much here, but please, if you have children, hug them extra close tonight.

The other is closer to me, no pun intended. There is a massive wildfire burning in the Santa Cruz mountains, close enough that if the wind blew in the right direction, I'd be able to smell the smoke from my house. I live far enough away that my home will be safe, and so will most everyone I know, but there are people out there at this very moment losing everything they have, if they haven't already.

According to the news it is very hard to get fire insurance in that area, so many people losing everything have no real hope of regaining what they've lost. A fledgling winery has burned, a cottage whose owner just put the finishing touches on it two days ago, people's pets are missing. Owners and volunteers have managed to save 260 horses and take them to an evacuation area at a local fairground.

Please, if you're the praying kind, ask your God or Higher Power to be with this situation. Light a candle, send good thoughts out to the universe, or something else of the kind. For the people whose homes are lost, for the people hoping it won't be them next, and perhaps most especially, for the teams of firefighters coming from all over the state, that they will contain this blaze and stay safe doing it.