Hey everybody.
Things are still very iffy and at any moment we could get chased out again, but Linda and I and Mickey (our dog) are back in our house and have not suffered much. LD is in the middle of the local Walmart parking lot, locked, alarmed and covered. The truck and car are still packed and we are ready to leave on a moment's notice. We were with Beagle's wife Susie, but that area was evacuated as well. Susie is at a friends home near the ocean in a safe area. So far the damage for us is related to ash, soot etc. My yard is a mess, the pool will have to be drained and scrubbed, the filter system and pumps were left on and got clogged and burned out. All very very minor stuff compared to those that have lost their homes, those like Brandon and Kerry who were away and may return to nothing. At least when we left we took two vehicles full of precious memories with us and as I said they are still packed and ready to go. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone of our CVO family and all residents of the SoCal area undergoing this. While we learned a lot from the fires of 4 years ago, there is no getting used to this. There were moments of near dispair yesterday as it seemed the fire was boxing us in and we had no escape route. Luckily I caught a very accurate John Coleman on TV and he explained the wind patterns, pinpointed the exact areas that were burning and using a computer model predicted where the fires were headed. After seeing that we returned home. At the moment, we have Mickey's instincts ( he paces and whines when things get bad) and my dust meter. I keep a small area clean on the patio and if the fire starts in this direction the ash and soot that blows in advance of the fire will cover that area quickly and we'll be gone again. Thank you every single one of you for all your well wishes and prayers. Please extend those to everyone in the SoCal area. Also to our brothers and sisters in the New Orleans area which is once again getting the worst of the weather.
Vaya con Dios Mi Amigos y Amigas
B B