---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Subject: more
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2003 01:30 pm
From: "Linda Page" <
lindapage@earthlink.net>
Well we are constantly being reminded Escondido has the honor of having the
worst air in the county right now. The fire crews are making a stand at
Julian and I'm terrified for them, the way out is winding little roads I'm
not sure they can outrun the fire if the wind comes up. They told the news
crew standing there that if the sky cleared up they should get out fast
because that meant the fire was upon them, it sucks up all the smoke,
interesting. I could not take any more had to turn it off for a bit.
So many of you have been there for me today trying to cheer me up and such,
thanks, I appreciate you! I am holding my own but getting cabin fever big
time. We are told to stay inside and the smoke is so bad I've not had
incentive to go out. Decided to go get the mail but the air is so bad I
quickly changed my mind. It I like a dense fog out there. I am so lucky to
have air filters that work if I clean the filters every few hours.
There are fires everywhere and the wind is changing directions constantly,
which makes it interesting, it is a miracle so few have died. I am hoping
at this point even though I am still in danger, packed up and ready to go,
that most of the fuel fires could use to come here is going to be gone by
the time the wind might shift to where I would be in trouble again. Fires
are north, east and south of me here, which is interesting in itself. The
east one was way too close, probably about a mile I think. Have to go down
there and check it out when I'm able, see if I was right about how far it
is.
They are saying it is "fuel driven" now, which is logical. Winds are
supposed to come up tomorrow, word just came in they are evacuating all the
mountains behind me, Palomar, and also even Arrowhead and Big Bear. Whew.
I think they are being pretty conservative with their evacuations, but the
fire is moving so fast, or was Sunday night, that you could never outrun it,
so that may not be true. The maps I notice are pretty inaccurate, I saw
someone on CNN earlier pointing to the paradise fire and calling it the
crest fire. There are so many little ones too. On a lighter note, they are
turning away volunteers, they have too many, and the little airport in the
southern part of the county where the fire crews are congregating is
swarming with fire fighters from all over, one of the media folks called it
an army of ants, so I was not the only one with an ant analogy, which was
nice. The humidity is going up. There are about 200 horses that have been
taken to del mar because they were homeless and people are being asked to
come and get them. Various companies are dropping off food and clothing and
other things. Albertsons dropped off a couple of pallets of carrots for the
horses and that was a huge hit.
If the weather will cooperate things will get better soon, if not, this
could go on for a long time. I am trying to meditate but it is hard,
keeping one ear open for someone coming up the drive with a loudspeaker
telling us to get out does not add to the ambience, heh. I suspect this
will be another long night, unfortunately. Probably the winds will not come
up until tomorrow when the sun is up, usually about 9 or 10 am is the time
when it gets hairy. All we can do is keep praying I guess. That is part of
the horror of it, the helplessness.
Meanwhile I am keeping my sense of humor. Hopefully things will just gently
die down and move away and be healed, I am working on it and calling rain
like mad. Even if you have no idea how to call rain, give it a shot, most
of us have past lives as some sort of shaman or other, eh? Hey it's fun. I
feel like it might not rain until about the 3rd week in November and it
could get into holocaust by then I think. We have had a day and a half of
very wussy santa ana winds, if a real good one came up lord knows what would
happen. I heard someone calling for them to get rid of a lot of the
eucalyptus trees, oh it was Davis. Ain't going to happen I suspect, but you
never know. Planting something else might be a good plan. Well I'm
rambling on here, cabin fever indeed.
Love to all
Linda
"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are
putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it." —Mark Twain
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E-Mail:
muse@glasswings.com.au
BA (Hons), MFA, PhD
http://www.glasswings.com.au/
Nothing can withstand the powers of love, laughter and imagination
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