Monday, October 13, 2008

Explorations


(Please click on the thumbnail for the larger version)

I have resolved to buckle down and get some long-neglected work done; but, I steal a few minutes here and there to explore—camera in hand.

Waiting

Around 7:30 PM yesterday, The Husband left for business in Los Angeles and fully expected to be back in Bear Valley Springs in time for lunch today. A Santa Ana intervened.

The fire that had broken out in the Angeles National Forest, north of Los Angeles, Sunday morning burned 2000 acres and resulted in mandatory evacuations of canyon areas, before fire fighters got a fairly good handle on it. Then, the Santa Ana arrived.

Now, whipped by 65 mile-per-hour winds, the fire in the Kagel and Lopez Canyon areas has destroyed over 3200 acres and left some people homeless. The outlook at the moment isn’t great, but the worst threat is further west. Powered by 80 miles-per-hour gusts, that blaze jumped an eight-lane freeway to threaten homes in the community of Chatsworth.

The fire isn’t close enough to threaten the house we are selling in Los Angeles , but it’s too close for comfort and near enough to our neighbors in Lake View Terrace and the Hansen Dam area to produce some seriously frayed nerves there. Our friends in that neighborhood have already evacuated most of their horses (several of them have too many animals to take out in one trip) and some have headed for Chatsworth to help with animal evacuations. Others are staying in the Big Tujunga area to help out there.

The Husband didn’t make it back for lunch. I know he is wishing that he had taken the Suburban for this trip, along with the horse trailer, in case there are folks in trouble.

More wait and see.