Fire! Fire! Fire!

We are safe, but we are sandwiched between some very bad fires. They are both to the South and the North of us. We have very poor air quality, but hey, we aren't burning.

My college classes were canceled today. Of course, when I left the house at 7:15 am (running late, as usual!) I didn't know this. We only get our TV news from the Los Angeles area, nothing from San Diego. And the LA news never mentions San Diego. So, I didn't know about the fires in North San Diego County when I headed south. I got to the exit I usually take to the college and everyone in the world is getting off here! Interstate closed! The sky was orange and brown, it was awful. I got to the college and the street was deserted. There is usually a mile long line of cars turning onto campus, seriously, it's a mile long at the point where I join it and it goes for 5 miles behind me after I turn into the line to get on campus. But, that's another story.. so the town was deserted and the campus was orange-coned off. I turned around and came back home. When I was driving north on the interstate, there were very few cars, kinda creepy. The road was open where I got off and hopped back on, but as I drove north, it closed behind me. Very frightening to be on such a lonely road. Escondido was on fire, still is.

My husband was dealing with the same type of thing as he drove north to his school. We both drive 45 miles in opposite directions. His school wasn't closed though, but the air was thick with smoke and they had high winds. His college class wasn't canceled either, so he's still working. He'll have to drive home in the dark smoke.

The fires destroyed over 100 homes at Lake Arrowhead, this is where my cousin owns a lake cabin. I sure hope her house is not damaged. She just got home on Sunday from a 5 week adoption trip to Kazakhstan and brought home her newly adopted son. What a welcoming.

We are just watching the fire on the news; watching them show all these fires that are out of control. They keep spouting off statistics that just keep getting worse as the day has worn on. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day. 300,000 people evacuated from San Diego. that's enough stats for you for today.

In other news.... my mom called me and said my grandmother (her mom) was taken to the hospital for chest pains. Turns out it wasn't a heart attack, but it was angina. She was given some medication and is on some monitors in the hospital overnight. Mom said she was going to go home today, but so far no answer at the house. I bet she's staying one more night. My grandma is 99 yrs old. And she's too darn stubborn to have a heart attack, so I'm sure she's just fine. But, she's on my mind.

Lets end this post on a good note. My toddler learned how to go DOWN the stairs today! And not by doing a nosedive. So, we've spent most of our day going up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down.... repeat... repeat again!