Holding On...Just Barely!

As of tonight, we are still in our apartment. We are not out of the clear yet, by any means! There have been times today that I have been certain that we had to evacuate (and hear rumors that our area of town needs to evacuate), but we have not needed to, yet. It's a bit ironic that every touristy place I wanted to take Mom this week is severely threatened (if not already singed) by the various fires. One of the professors visited the seminary today, and he said some of the trees have been blackened. The seminary is just over one mile away from us. One good thing is that today we saw some patches of blue sky instead of gray smoke, and even some stars are twinkling tonight. I take that as a good sign! Every time the phone rings, my heart jumps, thinking that it is a call to evacuate. The wind changes direction so that sometimes if you're outside, your eyes sting from the smoke, and you cough from the ash in the air, but other times, it's better -- it just smells like you're in a campground with all the campers having their campfires.

It's neato that President Bush has called "The Governator" (as Brad calls him) and offered help, and he's coming out to visit Southern California. Tonight, again, we will be falling asleep in our apartment, and I am thankful for that...though our bags are still packed and waiting.