City on Fire

What a Sunday. I left the house this afternoon to head over to a craft fair/fun raiser for the Hunger Defense Fund and in the span of a couple hours my little world has gotten dark. There are several fires burning all at once and our city is shrouded in smoke and ash. It's all over the news and has given our little corner of nowhere more publicity than it could have ever asked for. I really hope that all the people who own homes in the areas that are truly in danger are going to be OK.

Thanks to the sensational based reporting of every local news channel in Los Angeles, my Mom and Sister are convinced that we need to pack up our apartment and get out of town. This has done little to calm the nerves of my over imaginative son and regardless of how nervous I might be, I've got to play it cool. Think cucumber, ice cube, polar bear...Shaft, Chili Palmer...

It's close, but there is no mandatory evacuation for our specific area despite what the news is reporting. We've been checking the city website and keeping up with the fire's progress. Our main concern is what can happen overnight while we sleep. The winds are still blowing. They are at a significantly slower rate than earlier today so that is a good thing and it should be helpful for the fire fighters while they slave away overnight. At least I hope so.

Embers only need a little bit of wind to carry them on to the next dry patch. Tomorrow morning will bring stronger winds our way...it's reported to be around 80 mph. It's been a dry year and our area was ripe for this type of situation. We're going to pack some clothes just to be safe since the winds are headed in our direction. That changes at a moment's notice though so it could be different an hour from now.

**update @ 9:00 p.m.**

We received a message that Lil Man's school will be closed tomorrow. I went to the website and the road to his after school care has been closed. Looks like it's going to be a long night. How does one sleep soundly through the night when you've got to keep up on the news? I know we don't have it as bad as others so I am grateful for that at least.

I was able to get a couple of pictures of the sun peeking through the wall of smoke while driving home earlier.

I also snapped a picture from our balcony as it was getting dark.