Angora -- John in February

1/08 tahoe mt. news:


By Kathryn Reed

Editor's note: This is a monthly article following one of the hundreds of people who lost their homes in the Angora Fire in summer 2007.
Snow is so high that address markers are not clearly readable in the burn area. It doesn’t matter. John Mauriello knows his lot. He snowshoed by it earlier this month.
The emotional heartache of visiting the place doesn’t resonate like it did immediately after the June 24 Angora Fire.
“I miss the place. It was a nice chalet,” he said Feb. 4 with a hint of nostalgia in his voice.
All the construction going on in the burn area has not swayed him to definitively rebuild. Contractors’ trucks crowd streets that are down to a single lane. A blue, green or tan porta-potty is at the base of nearly every driveway where building is going on.
“I’m glad I didn’t start right away,” Mauriello said. “I’m not doing anything within the next 60 to 90 days.”
If and when he goes forward with building, he’ll find out for sure if he needs interior sprinklers. Neighbors are saying it looks like he might not have to put them in.
Rebuilding your life when it has been swept away by a blaze caused by people who started an illegal campfire near Seneca Pond comes one triumph at a time.
It’s relearning Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” – something he was perfecting on his piano before the fire erupted.
It’s getting the pizza recipe just right – through trial and error. The measurements went with the fire.
“I tried it a couple times and it tasted like crap,” he said of the initial attempts at the dough. “I was putting in too much flour.”
When it comes to his health, Mauriello only talks about losing weight and the fun he’s having in the college’s cross country ski class.
“First of all, you don’t want to fall. The energy it takes to get up …,” he said of trying to perfect the free heel glide.
In late January he was sending out more thank you cards. Sierra-at-Tahoe sent him a $50 Raley’s certificate around the holidays. Rotary sent another two checks.
“It’s uplifting,” Mauriello said. “People are still thinking of you.”
On the last day of January he was writing checks – one for $24,603.09. This was to El Dorado County for debris removal. With it he sent a copy of Ed Cook’s bill for tree removal to prove why it was “shorting” the county by $3,200.
He’s just doing what county Supervisor Norma Santiago said to do. It’s how the people who paid for tree removal get reimbursed.
His plan was to show up at the airport to vote in the California primary. It had been his precinct before, but voting material hadn’t arrived before Super Tuesday.
Next month inventory is on his to-do list. The insurance company’s guy will be back at the Lake to settle up.
Mauriello buys what he needs. If it costs more than what the insurance company will reimburse him for, so be it. He doesn’t want junk in his life. He doesn’t dwell on what isn’t there.
“I don’t want to put myself in the situation where I say ‘I wish’. Yes, I will miss things. But I’m not going to buy wrenches to remind me of my father,” the 60-year-old said.
The crucifix that was on his mother’s coffin can’t be replaced. It is what it is. And life goes on – come sentiments of Mauriello’s.
“What are you going to do? Pout the rest of your life. I’ve done enough pouting,” Mauriello said.