Gap Fire

Robin Williams - Elmer Fudd Sings Bruce Springsteen

Since hearing Robin Williams singing Fire in the voice of Elmer Fudd many, many years ago, I can NEVER hear, say, or think the word fire without hearing it as fiii-wuh.

*****

Surreal. A couple of days ago, they created a mandatory evacuation zone north (mountain side) of Cathedral Oaks and Fairview, extending toward Glen Annie (for those of you familiar with the area).

The power went out over most of town last night. It came back up earlier downtown, but was off at our place for about 4 hours. Thankfully, Sofie went to sleep before we couldn’t see anything. Tim and I went into the middle of the street at the end of our driveway, and you could totally see the flames straight ahead in the hills. Scary.

I went back inside, trying to play Sudoku while holding the puzzle book in one hand and a flashlight with the other. (Reminder to me: look for my cute purple Mag Light when I get home.) It made me wish I HAD bought those miner-like headband light thingies years ago, as I wanted. I’ve repeatedly told Tim over the years we needed ‘em; he disagreed. There have been times we’d be at some particular store, I’d see them, and pick them up with intention of buying them. “We don’t need those,” he’d say.

Not that I do everything he says. Hardly. And not that I don’t buy things because he tells me not to. HAAHAAHAARDLY. But I do know I have a penchant for buying useless crap. Perhaps these fell into that category? Apparently, they did not and do not. Hmph. See? Totally could have used one last night.

Ooooh…This one’s currently on sale at REI.

Other fun included text messaging with Patmo. She said her dogs were confused as to why she was lying on the floor in the dark. I guess, now that I think about it, I’m confused, too, Patmo. :/ I assured her that if I had to evacuate, I would be sure to grab our Janet Jackson tickets as I grabbed my, Tim’s, and Sofie’s birth certificates and other important papers.

When Tim went to bed around 10:30, I decided to drive and get a closer look. It was surreal, as there were no lights anywhere. The Vons on Turnpike was the only store I found to be open. I stopped to get a 9V battery for my radio, but they were wiped out. (Weird needing to depend on a radio!) Interestingly, they also declared they were NOT selling any frozen food.

Anyway, I then drove up to the point where the barricades were at the corner of Cathedral Oaks and Fairview. There were about a couple dozen other people there, too. And the cops, natch, directing traffic.

I’m glad I went. I got a better perspective of the fire, namely, that it wasn’t directly heading toward OUR home at the time, as it appeared from our driveway. It was, however, right above that corner upon which I was standing. BTW, Sofie’s daycare is 2 blocks south of the mandatory evacuation area.

Also at that time, they were saying that the direction of the fire was heading south (bad) and west, toward Glen Annie (Canyon). Whew, for now. We’re east.

It was an orderly situation at the barricade site. Everyone left the site around the same time, about 20 minutes after I got there. A couple minutes prior to my leaving, I heard:

* Faceless voice shout out to the Officer Directing Traffic, “Yeah, they’re sending a black and white.”
* Cute young blonde to her boyfriend, “Ooooh! I’m learning so much! “Black and White!”"

Officer Directing Traffic came out of the street and started walking our direction. I asked if there was any further word on containment, to which he responded in his best manly bad-ass voice while positioning his thumbs in his belt loops, “Nope. They haven’t told us anything.” He proceeded to walk just behind me, turned on his flashlight, and muttered something like, “Hmm… let’s see what’s up here.” He illuminated the No Parking sign with his flashlight. “Yep, that’s what I thought.”

He continued walking up the sidewalk, flashed his light into the parked cars, “Nope, no one in there. Or this one either. Not this one. Hmmm… None of these cars.”

I guess everyone grew tired at the exact same time, because we all left right then and there.

This morning, I heard on the radio that it was 5% contained, and that it appeared to not have started naturally; speculation continues.

Where I go for information:
* EdHat
* SB Independent
* InciWeb site
* County of Santa Barbara

p.s.: Sending love and positive thoughts out into the universe for everyone, especially Dan and The Cabin.

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