Opinion

Last year was an exceptionally good one when it came to forest fires in Northern California. Thanks to a wet winter and heavy snowpack in 2010-11, there simply weren’t too many.

But the chances of a repeat performance this summer are pretty slim. Thanks to less-than-normal snowpack and a mild spring that saw an early melt-off, the forests in Plumas County are already becoming tinder dry. The U.S. Forest Service signs along the roadways are already warning us that fire danger has become extreme.

Walking down the hall at Eastern Plumas Health Care, I slowed as the memories came flooding back. It was if someone had turned back the clock and I could envision the young mother and her newborn being cared for on the other side of the wall. Though I only moved away from Plumas County five years ago, it has been 15 years since I lived in Graeagle. We moved there in 1987, just two months before our youngest daughter, Carly, was born — hence the hospital flashback.

I’ve decided to clone myself at the first opportunity. That way I can take turns with myself and work every waking moment, be everywhere and everything people seem to think I should be.

It troubles me when people attack me verbally and in public for what amounts to unfair reasons. But then they are upset enough at the time to believe they know everything they need to know and are in the right.

I’ve been thinking a lot about creativity lately. I’ve been going through a bit of a dry spell myself, so I picked up a copy of “Imagine: How Creativity Works” by Jonah Lehrer.

I wasn’t surprised to learn that there are multiple forms of creativity — improv, for example, is it’s own animal. Nor was I surprised to know that creativity involves both the receptive right brain and the focused left brain.