The sun is dark orange and ash is falling down. A couple days ago the ash was made up of fine particles easily seen on my black car. Today the ash is coming down like a fine sprinkling of snow. It's easy to catch these larger pieces in my hand. We went to Trader Joes to get some groceries, after loading the car I lifted a large piece of ash off the trunk with my finger and Dirk said "that could have come from someone's house that had burned".

We feel so very sad and sickened by all of the homes that were lost in these fires. We partially know what that feels like. Four years ago this coming Nov. 1st, two weeks after our wedding, we also had a house fire. We were extremely fortunate because the firemen were able to save the bottom floor of our home, but our top floor was destroyed. Our fire was our own fault, we left candles burning unattended upstairs while we went to get something to eat in the kitchen. The one thousand plus people that have lost their homes in the past several days lost theirs mostly due to arson. Our faith in humanity has dropped a notch. We empathize with the devastation the people that lost their homes feel and we know the long road they have before them.

There is no way you can prepare yourself fully for such a thing. What do you take before you evacuate? The real value of things becomes much clearer when faced with such a decision. Hopefully, most of those people were given at least some time to decide. We were not afforded that because the fire moved so quickly. Our most precious valuables were our lives and the lives of our pets (not even a pair of shoes mattered at that point). The most basic of needs is to have the people and animals you love safe and sound; precious pictures and documents can't take precedence over that.

I wish I could take away the pain for the families that have been effected by these fires, but all I can say is I am sorry. My heart aches for their loss. I hope that they will soon be able to begin the process of rebuilding their homes and lives.




Not a good picture of me, but it does show the burned little paws of our kitties Orion and Cassiopeia = (