Drama is my life

OK. I was going to write about my trip this summer and all the wonderful places we went, but life went and got in the way and I've been really busy lately.

First, my sister R came to visit in late August, and we had a great time. We went to the Sunset Street Fair, Melrose, Universal City Walk. At the airport we saw Ice T, and she got his autograph. Then she went home and the fires started. A friend of ours who lives at the beach called because he heard we were evacuated! He invited us to his house, and that was nice.

The next night The Girl saw the fire on the way home, when her friends Dad drove right by the fire in the town next to us. She came home crying, and I tried to comfort her. She said it looked like a wall of fire.

The next day I woke up coughing at all the smoke, and had to turn on the AC just to filter the air so we could breath!

But the fire was still a long way from our home. The next day The Boy wanted to move back to his dorm at a certain time. I stopped at the store to get some Starbucks, and in the process of getting pressured to hurry up, I locked the keys in the car! He was SO mad! I asked some policemen who were there if they could open it for me, but they called the Auto Club guy for me instead.

Meanwhile, everyone in the store parking lot was looking at the fire, which was now on one of the mountains behind us. It was an impressive sight, coming over the hills bearing down on us. The police warned us that the street was getting evacuated later that night. The Girl started crying again when she heard this.

The Boy was only concerned about getting to his dorm, so he told her that it would never happen and this was all just a bunch of alarmists getting upset about nothing.

Somewhere around this time the Girl started feeling stronger about the situation. I told her I used to have bad dreams about fires, and I think it speaks to a fear of a loss of security. She agreed, and somehow it seemed to make her feel better.

The next day we went to visit our friend at the beach, and had a nice time. We could see the smoke from a long way on the drive home, but it was dark and it didn't look that bad.

The next morning, at 2:30am, we got a call that told us to evacuate! What?

I was immediately wide awake! I've never been evacuated before. I had gotten a few things together after the police had told us about the possible evac the day before. A few pictures, my best jewelry, my leather jackets and boots. Important papers. A change of clothes. It's strange when you think about what to save when you're leaving your home behind.

So I had the car packed in no time. K decided to take a shower, so there was some waiting for him. Meanwhile, there were police cars driving around talking on some loudspeaker, telling us we had to evacuate.

It was a surreal scene, being dark outside, hearing the police and seeing our neighbors packing their cars. A guy came across the street and told us he'd come to his parents house from Pasadena, when he'd gotten evacuated there. Now he was evacuated here too!

We grabbed the dog and the fish and got into the car. We drove to the local High School, which was the evacuation center. When we finally found it, it was small, it had cots, and the lights were on. Who could sleep in there? Plus there were no pets allowed, so some elderly people were sitting outside with their pets. I thought this was a real glitch in the system, because lots of people have pets.

I also noticed the teenage girls carrying around their pillows and blankets. I was jealous, and now I know what to take if I'm ever evacuated again. A pillow! A blanket! (plus my pictures and jewelry and important papers.)

We drove around for awhile. I didn't want to wake my friend who lives down the hill from us, because it was SO early and I knew there was already someone (and possibly some dogs) staying there. I decided we'd wait until 5am to wake her up.

Meanwhile, I tried to sleep in the van with the dog. Then we heard they might let us go back, so K drove back up the hill, and at 4:30 am they let us return. It was really hard driving around with the fish sloshing in his bowl. We kept telling K, "Be careful! Drive slower!" Poor fish.

Anyway, we got back home and went to sleep. They evacuated us again the next morning, but a man down the street was listening to everything on his police scanners, and he advised us to stay put. He'd let us know if it really got dangerous. We no longer trusted the evacuation system, and it was a hassle to leave home and find a place for the dog.

So we stayed home and watched the fire. The Fire Department decided to burn the hillside nearest us on purpose - to get rid of the fuel and avoid a bigger fire I guess. So we drank a beer and watched it burn and fielded phone calls from people who were worried about us.

The worst thing was the smoke, which came down every night and blew away every day. Since we didn't evacuate, we couldn't leave the house, either, because then they wouldn't let us come back up the hill. This lasted for a few days.

The police drove around, which was good, because there were lots of people who had their valuables sitting in their cars, ready to evacuate.

All in all, it was pretty dramatic, as you can see from the pictures. Now we have to worry about the mudslides, since the hillside no longer has vegetation to hold the dirt.

It's always something, right? I'll tell you about the rest of September in my next post.

Whew!