Cloud and Fire

My area of So Cal is once again under fire.

Despite the fact that we go through fire season every year, the one closest to me (and least under control right now) is so intense because it is the first fire in that area for sixty years.

I have two friends that have been evacuated from their homes, but Cath and I are no where near in danger of the fire actually getting to us.

We’re close enough to have ash on our patio, and work and home are both plagued with the smell of smoke.

We personally are not in a natural disaster; we are just disaster adjacent.

Here were my observations from the weekend.

Saturday:

For anyone wanting to visit, but don’t have directions to our condo:

Get to Burbank.

Locate the column of black smoke coming straight up behind the mountain.

Point your car at the column, and drive directly toward it.

We are on the side that isn’t on fire.

Sunday:

I was up at that church on Mulholland Drive. Great view of the valley.

At night, the mountains all disappear into the dark, and the valley is just a serious of twinkly lights; Christmas spread across the miles.

But this night there is a twist. The mountains are gone, except for the ridgeline.

Someone has take a bright, neon yellow highlighter and ran a sloppy line along the ridge, stopping at random points, picking up again later down the line.

Looks eerily like the lava lines shot at night by a Hawaiian cameraman.

The total picture does not compute. Gentle, twinkly lights; a border of black darkness; then eruptive lines of neon yellow.

Beautiful and awful.

Just my thoughts,

Sean