This week I've been actually working, and remembering how tiring it is to focus and do more than 5 hours of software work in a day. Today is my last day before I head up to Zen Center until August.
I've been following the Big Sur fires, which have been creeping toward Tassajara, via resources like
The Google Earth map shows a fire detection in the last 12 hours, .5mi from Tassajara. 19 more people have evacuated, leaving 5 behind, including one of the SFZC abbots; the SFZC page saysTheir primary concern is safety, and not saving buildings. Right now, Tassajara is the safest place for them to be as the safety of Tassajara Road has been compromised by fire.I looked at a sidelong terrain view of Tassajara Road in Google Earth: 14 miles of dirt road clinging to hillsides and traveling the knife edge of ridges. It really is as rugged as it seems out there, and it's all on fire, so keep your hearts open for the people. (The place is iconic and it'd be a shame to lose it, but it would be rebuilt in the grand tradition of Japanese temples, which burn down every couple hundred years and are rebuilt exactly the same as they were.)