Watch out!

There is a fire advisory out for where David and I live today, actually for where Mom and Shelly and Steve live, too. I knew this before I even got out of bed today. How, you may ask? No, I am not developing psychic powers. But it is never fun to wake up, and after you lift your head from the pillow, your hair stays behind. I am now wishing that I hadn't cut my hair because I forgot that I wouldn't be able to put it in a ponytail on low humidity days such as this one. Static-y hair is one of the most annoying things I can think of. Blah!

But on to more important matters...

I think it was about five years ago that the wildfires were really, really bad by us. So bad that Simi Valley, where my mom lives (and I did at that time), was on the news every night, with tales of thousands and thousands of acres burned. The beautiful landscape heading into Simi Valley was replaced by charred hillsides with empty and vacant remains, showing only the dark remnants of what used to flower the land. It was there for months, a reminder of how scary it was on those days; Jeff and I sat on the rooftop of our house and watched the neighbors do the same, as we watched the hill across the street burn, wondering if it was going to take a turn and force us out of our homes. Our cars were packed for weeks with clothes, essentials, and photo albums in case we were forced to evacuate.

The weather this morning reminds me of that time. For weeks it has been so incredibly hot; ninety plus, heading somedays in the hundreds have made the last weeks of September and the first few days of October an incredibly uncomfortable fall. And then last night and today, it cooled off so much that we slept with our window open and pulled out the big, fluffy blanket to cuddle under. But that same thing happend in 2003. Luckily, David and I now live far enough away from any hills, that I am confident that we would be safe, but what about our Burbank friends and neighbors who aren't? What about Mom and Jeff, still in that same house in Simi Valley, that could potentially be at risk once again?

I hope, as the winds increase and the humidity stays so low, that we aren't faced with that fate once again. The fires that will inevitably start, as they do every fall, will no doubt cause acres and acres of damage once again. The fools that start these fires aren't going to be reading my little blog, so I guess my venting about it won't help anything.

Stay safe California!