Spooky

It is getting a bit spooky around here and it doesn't have anything to do with being so close to Halloween. The media does love to over-dramaticize everything, but is easier to do that when things just look eerie out. The sky is dark, the sun has a halo around it, and there is that distinctive smell in the air. Whenever we would move back to San Diego from where ever growing up, the first brush fire would bring back the memories of that distinctive smell. Kind of like a barbeque, but not quite. In fact, walking around the neighborhood last night with the boys looking at Halloween decorations we smelled barbeque, but I think that it really was just some chicken on the grill.

The fires are bringing back strong memories of four years ago, just days before Sammy was born. Memories like standing outside our front door talking with our neighbor. Looking across the valley to see firetrucks up on the next ridge. Trying to figure out if we were supposed to evacuate. Poor Suzy wondering if we would be able to get to the hospital for our scheduled c-section. Fires getting so close to work that a couple of guys going to grab all of our computers. Fires jumping the 52 Freeway and getting way too close to our favorite Japanese restaurant, Niban.

Now it seems like things are about the same. Fires surrounding San Diego city proper. Evacuations from places that I have been riding my bike through. My co-worker has gone home this morning because the fires are just across a freeway from his house. This morning Suzy and I kept hearing barking, but we couldn't figure out where it was coming from. When I walked outside to catch a ride to work (can't walk, air is too nasty out) I talked with my neighbor and she told me her house is full, some friends were evacuated late last night, and she now has two dogs, three cats and a bird, in addition to the three cats she already has. A crowded house. Well, that at least explains the strange barking.

The reassuring thing to us is that we live in an area that people are being evacuated to, not from. But please keep the people who have been evacuated and all of the emergency personnel in your prayers. Talk about hell on earth for those people.