San Diego Wildfires Day 5

Walking out into the living room this morning I immediately noticed that there was more smoke in the air. Waiting for the bus and the trolley my throat got very scratchy, my eyes stung a little, and I could see a little more ash in the air. The top picture is from the trolley stop towards downtown showing how smoky the air is.

There were a few more people downtown today, some of them in surgical masks. I was feeling sorry for all the delivery guys, construction workers, and pedi-cab operators that have had to work outside in it all. Our office was almost back to full strength. One of the guys was back in his house, another was hoping to get back home tonight, and one had his sister staying with him. She lost the roof of her house and won't be able to get back for weeks. But she was lucky. She lives in Rancho Bernardo and lots of her neighbors lost everything.

I'm really proud of how the everyone all worked together througout the county. Reverse 911 calls and aggressive police orders to evacuate got everyone out. Only 1 person died due to the fire directly. 1 million people were evacuated while only tens of thousands were in evacuation centers. Some left town, but most were absorbed by families and friends. The evacuation centers had more supplies and volunteers than they knew what to do with.

After a wonderful dinner prepared by Keith and featuring leftovers from Randall's recent birthday party, Randall, Andreas, and Molly returned home this evening. I'm happy for them but sad to see them go.

The winds calmed down a lot today slowing the fires down and allowing the firefighters to make some headway, although many houses are still threatened.

The 2nd and 3rd photos show the sunseting through all the smoke in the air. It really wasn't as red tonight as the photos show. It was more orange, but I still like the pictures. I was dissapointed the sunset wasn't quite as gorgeous as yesterday. After getting on the trolley I thought I should have been more patient and waited until just before the sun dissappeared behind Point Loma to get the most color. Lesson for today: You can't ever really get the shot you missed yesterday. It's better to be patient and make the most of the shot that presents itself to you today.

The County Building was taken just after sunset. And the last photo doesn't show how pretty the nearly full moon was rising through the smoke, but it's the best shot of the moon I've gotten so far.