Stop, Drop, and Roll? No? Run for Your Life? Yes?

Waiting for the smoke to clear...

As I watched the Sox win the Pennant, we were notified via scrolling text there were two major fires in SD county, one at something like 2000 acres and the other at 5000 acres. That's big but when I thought back to every fire season we have had, it was nothing, so I said, well, it's not good, but still small so, not to worry. It was miles and miles away, east of Ramona.

I woke up the next morning to the beginning of Armageddon. Oceanside still looked peaceful and calm, blue skies. Drove to work in Carlsbad, saw a huge red cloud and found out the office was closed because the area might be evacuated. The 3 days the followed were kinda frightening. And tiring. Monday evening, I set my cell phone alarm to go off at 1am, 3am, and 5am so that I could turn on the TV and see if we were going to be evacuated or not. Tuesday night, I checked at 2:30am and 6am. Needless to say that even though I wasn't at work, it was not a day off. It was fairly exhausting, the whole thing. I was happy to get back to work and out of the house.

We were lucky that we didn't have to evacuate; but it was awfully close (about 1 mile from the border of a mandatory evacuation area). I am really thankful that I have my house, because there are too many families in San Diego County that lost theirs. It is just crazy to look at the huge list of homes lost, especially, the number of homes in Rancho Bernardo. It's like entire streets were wiped out. Looking at the maps it is just astonishing -- the vastness of the space that was burned. I one point on Tuesday, when the winds would not let up, I had a small internal panic attack that EVERYTHING in San Diego would burn down making it near impossible to get money out of bankrupt insurance companies in order to rebuild. And I don't it was that irrational of a thought when you look at how fast and far the fire moved in just one evening.

I am still waiting for the air quality to improve. We are unlucky in O'side as our air is probably the worst in the county (aside from areas where the fire is active). I had been keeping the pups in the house all week, but today, I had to leave the dogs out because [dun, dun, DUUUNNNN!!!] Rusty struck again.

Trash Strewn About the House

Yes, I am tired of this old dog. He is a pain in the ass. He decided to use a trick he learned outside a few months back. Knocked over our kitchen trash can (which is no small feat, it's tall and not that light), and the two of them went through every piece of trash. Ate and licked the inside of everything. Nikki (and I know it was her because the evidence was on her spot on the couch) took one of those soy-milk style cartons that had been filled with Butternut Squash Apple Soup, ripped it apart with her little teeth and licked every square millimeter. They even licked the inside of potato chip bags. And from this morning's walk, it was clear Rusty was the one that ate the red pepper remnants (that couldn't have felt good coming out. Not that he doesn't deserve it).

So, they will have to deal with the particulate in the air at this point. If my kitchen dreams ever come true, I will have my trash hidden away in an under-the-counter cabinet. But I fear that with the new rash of people that will be rebuilding, my plan might be delayed (unless I jump on the wagon RIGHT AWAY - and I think I will begin calling contracts as soon as this weekend).

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