San Diego Wildfires 2003

Late Saturday Night: October 26th, 2003 @ 1:00am

As far as not feeling connected to people, its funny how quickly it happens. Guess that's the trouble with working when most of your friends are still finishing school and on a completely different schedule and lifestyle. As much as six months ago I was saying "I'm not ready to leave San Diego, I want to stay here longer". But those reasons are evaporating. Why? The people. The social life. I didn't want to give that all up just yet and start over up north. But less and less seems to keep tying me down here (other than my 12 month lease, but we'll ignore that for a moment...). I'm just sayin, if I had to leave San Diego right now, I don't feel like I'd be missing much.

It feels like standing on the middle of a bridge--its tough to say whether gluing yourself there is going to prevent you from moving foward when the bridge is about to collapse on you or save you from getting thrown by a windstorm.

Part of me is ready to just move on...shed that which doesn't suit me. Being thrown into a new environment maybe it would be rough at first not knowing anyone. But maybe that'd be the jolt you'd need to go out and get involved in something that makes you meet really interesting people. But part of me still thinks, no, not quite yet. There's still stuff to be worked out within yourself first.

The sky is an eerie gold color right now...its just a little *too* yellowish. I can kinda smell a "campfire" type smell coming in the window too.

Are there some forest fires goin on in the desert east of here or something? (forest fire, desert, yea that makes no sense I know...) I was kinda noticing this odd orangey hue to the sky yesterday afternoon up in san clemente....weirdness...

edit:
why I post before oooh say, checking the union tribune online, I dunno. it has all the answers
Brush fires burn across county
Firefighters are battling two major fires burning across the county this morning. The first fire is burning east of Ramona heading in a southwest direction towards Lakeside. A second fire is burning in the Valley Center area near Lake Wohlford.

oooh yay, I didn't even think of this last night, but daylight savings! whoot...that means its not 8am...but 7am...and I know its too early to be awake...but I like can't sleep so I'm lying in bed laptoping in hopes i'll fall back asleep for at least one more hour

Current Mood: awake

I seriously think its getting darker out rather than lighter. Which would sound odd, if it weren't that the reason that "winds are blowing to the southwest" bringing more smoke into the sky than before, significantly blocking a portion of the sky. Ramona? Hmmm, I used to know someone from there that I haven't talked to in ages. I wonder how he's doing.

"the flames are less than a quarter mile away from Scripps Ranch"

I really don't like the sound of that. That just sounds kinda...close? They're evacuating Scripps Ranch east of Pomerado now according to the live tv broadcast.

I honestly don't think it is going to get light out today. It's now about 9am, new time, and its still looks like sunrise outside. The sky is gray and orange. I can hear helicopters, and smell smoke--even though I've closed my windows.

I mean, they just announced an evacuation center at Mira Mesa High School...

The air quality is horrible. I may have to get out of here and head west just because it sucks, not to mention the creepy factor: that they are evacuating less than 5-10 miles from where I live. Oooh, and did I mention my neighborhood edges on the military base lands that are basically brush...and pretty much touch the areas being evacuated and that are burning?

"the fire is NOT under control and winds are blowing southwest" (note that I live southwest of the fires just about exactly)

"if you are south of Scripps Ranch you may want to be on watch"

"highway 15 is backed up"

I'm definitely getting ready to get out of here. I went out on the deck for a minute, and the smoke was pretty heavy out.

I'm definitely getting out of here.

The question is...

Worst case scenario: my whole neighborhood burns to a crisp later today or tomorrow and everything left is gone; of course I don't have renters insurance, so anything left is pure loss.
Best case scenario: winds blow the fire back on itself, it doesn't hit my neighborhood.

There's an unusual amount of people walking around outside my neighborhood.

I'm definitely getting out of here within the next hour. The question is....do I prepare for the possibility they'll evacuate my neighborhood later and pack up my most important possessions before I leave? Or just get myself the $$$$ out of here?

The street is covered in a thin layer of ash. People are carrying things out to their cars and the parking lot is almost empty. I'm leaving for TJ's now...took some clothes and a few irreplaceable things. Bye.

Doomsday

I'm at TJ's now (on campus at UCSD). My complex, as I left, one of the neighbors commented about it looking like doomsday out, and he wasn't sure why some of our neighbors weren't concerned. He said he'd just been up there.

Scripps Ranch is now burning, not just evacuating.

Neighbors were screeching out of the parking lot, loading up laundry baskets into cars--I even saw one guy throwing garbage bags into a budget rent a moving truck.

Getting on the freeway, I was driving straight into the smoke. It was pretty eerie. 15 was empty. Nobody was driving north...or south. I heard on the radio they closed 15 anyway.

It was a lot of ash on the ground outside out of my apartment on my car...even landing IN the trunk as I filled it with as much as I could carry in only three trips to my car. Ihe smoke was just too heavy to go outside more times than that.

I filled up on gas on my way over...just in case we need to get somewhere out of here.

San diego is burning down. Escaping north isn't too promising, 805 was backed up. There's more fires in Santa Ana...so you'd be leaving one fire and driving towards another. Southbound seems like it'd be a better escape route if it got to that...but it looked pretty backed up with people leaving the area too.

We'll see what happens. Least I'm father away now. Pray for me and for everyone else in San Diego. We need it.

So, what did I pack? Two suitcases full of random clothes, my box of old journals and dream journals, my lone photo album, the laptop, my cd case, and a few random books, oooh and my special teddy bear, a quilt my aunt made me, and a random blanket and pillow off my bed.

I don't suspect I'll be home anytime particularly soon, even if my apartment is saved.

Scripps Ranch is REALLY burning. I'm watching it on tv right now. that's like the next neighborhood north of mine. All that's between is a big area of dry brush that is "Miramar Naval Air-Station".

My neighborhood is now under mandatory evacuation, but hasn't burned down yet. ...yet. Whether it'll stay that way? We'll just have to wait and see.

They just showed the sign for the turn onto Repecho dr. THERE IS FIRE LITERALLY ACROSS THE STREET FROM MY COMPLEX...$$$$

[image at right is of what the TV news footage was showing]

"no homes have been lost in Tierrasanta yet". so far its staying on the other side of the street. but everything north of my complex is just fire and smoke. there are other more troubling areas at the moment. just time to be hopeful I guess...its heading more south and more west...they said WEST of 805 near 52 even...that's getting closer to where I am now

Two houses in Tierrasanta have burned down and part of a condo building...they look like they're on the eastern side though. As far as I can tell, no exciting news on the northern front of Tierrasanta as of yet...haven't heard i've burned down or that its out near there either...

I saw a picture of a fire map online where they'd drawn a circle around fire areas...burning? being fought? I missed the explanation of the red circle that surrounded a bunch of area I know have been burning my complex was inside the circle. but none of the channels are updating on what has burned down. I have no idea whether my home is still standing. its all just kinda surreal--like a bad dream. San Diego's own mini-armageddon. Pictures on TV are nothing but burning buildings and neighborhoods.

Six homes in Tierrasanta and two condos. That's comforting as it means its mostly the eastern side burning I think

Mission trails park is burning. :-( That's only a few blocks from my apartment. They're "hoping" they will be able to contain it to just the park

So I think it would be a safe bet to say that I will not be at work tomorrow. I mean, even if I wanted to go to work, unless they suddenly opened up a bunch of roads I probably wouldn't be able to get there. I'm definitely not going to be able to go home tonight. Guess I can be glad I packed clothes and a blanket and pillow huh?

No word that my apartment has burned to the ground yet, although I did hear a smidgen of a news report saying something about an apartment complex in Tierrasanta where several buildings had sustained damage. but it sounded like they were saying building numbers like "17" and my complex uses letters...so I'm not sure where they were talking about. There doesn't seem to be anywhere to see reports of what has already been damage, I mean aside from "if you live in Scripps Ranch, you're probably $$$$ed, 'cuz your house has probably burned down already". I used to volunteer at Scripps Ranch elementary for Tau Beta Pi [the engineering honor society @ UCSD]; they were cute kids.

I'm sitting in Nadav's living room right now. no idea where he went...out somewhere. some girl Nadav knows is over borrowing his kitchen to cook for her roommates.

Mon. October 27th, 2003 @ 2:30pm

I'm tired of being evacuated. I want to be at home curled up in my own bed. I want to take a shower in my own shower. I want to shave. I want my soap. I want to cook a nice dinner with lots of veggies.

I've pretty much been just eating dining hall food, which is alright, but nothing to jump for joy over. Cafe Ventanas doesn't really seem to have developed much of a specialty yet...or for that matter, much of a menu. I mean, aside from their like 12 or 15 choices of cereal...they don't have very good signage to tell you what they have; like they have a pizza oven, but the pizza price is so small on the "special of the day" cards that its quite easy to not even notice you can get pizzas...and what flavors you can get? "Uhhh, can I get vegetarian?" That worked.

The air quality is miserable. Basically every school in the county is closed. some were slower than others to announce this (the only one I saw AFTER UCSD was chula vista elementary schools). I really liked the news-caster last night who was saying the list of schools that had announced they were closed and then was like, "I'm really not sure WHY UCSD isn't on this list." But, yeah, they're closed, in case you didn't guess.

The news basically said the county was encouraging all corporations to tell their employees to stay home, and telling everyone unless you're essential personnel, stay home. My work is closed. Not that I even called to check till about 1:00. Not that I had any intention of going even if they were open. The air quality is $$$$, and I'd have to go through areas by fire to get there...and not to mention the air filter on my car has needed replacing for about ooooh, at least a year. I'm sure its more than worn out right now, and I really shouldn't be driving it more than necessary in this air quality.

Looks like my apartment is probably still standing. Lindsay was able to get through to the answering machine for my apartment complex's leasing office. I don't have a land line (to call my own answering machine and check that its still there and not burnt to a crisp). Here's a picture (at left) of the only image i've seen showing where the damaged houses in Tierrasanta are. My apartment is off to the left of the picture, not quite visible there. The blue smudges are burnt down/damaged homes. They're all on the north-eastern side of Tierrasanta I'm on the northwestern side. Apparently the road closures start at 15 going east on Tierrasanta, Clairemont Mesa, and I-15. So if I really wanted to I could go drive up and down 15 there and get close enough I could physically see my complex is still there, but I'm not going out in this air if at all possible. There's a good reason they keep saying on TV, stay inside, keep your windows closed.

I feel lethargic today. Don't want to do anything. I've been sitting around lying in bed or watching tv or reading the posts on

san_diego and talking on aim. But I have no energy. But I think the "weather" (or should I say smoke?) is getting to a lot of people slowly but surely. I wanna be curled up in my bed. too bad its not here.

Current Mood: lethargic

Mon. October 27th, 2003 @ 6:35pm

Tierrasanta is open to residents again! yay. I'm not jumping to go home because of the air quality though. The news feeds of Scripps Ranch to the north and Qualcomm to the south just showed the air is so thick you can barely see. They said, get this, that you can't even see the stadium from 15--that means visibility is less than a quarter mile, and its not because of fog; that's soot and ash and smoke.

I almost kinda want to go back there and get a couple things out of my apartment...but I dunno. $$$$ I just remembered... Friday night I submitted a service request to replace the weather stripping on my front door; there's a quarter inch gap between the bottom of the door and the ground that air and smoke can blow in. I noticed it then, confused as to why the neighbor's cigarette smoke was blowing in still even though i'd closed the sliding door. I hope there's not too thick of a layer of ash inside the apartment.

Work's probably going to be closed again tomorrow. They said on tv "non-essential personnel" were advised not to go to work tomorrow, and all 42 school districts in the county will be closed due to air quality. Oh yeah, and for those who need the obvious pointed out to them (coughbernardcough) as the news reminds us, don't go outside if you can avoid it, and definitely do not go outside and excercise.

Current Mood: relieved

Tue. October 28th, 2003 @ 10:44am

Well, work was open this morning (yes, I called first) so I decided to go in. came home to eat some breakfast and see how my apartment was. Driving home the air quality was $$$$, and there was lots of smoke in the air and smoldering brush along 52.

My apartment is in pretty good shape. It doesn't smell too smoky or too much ash in it (well, at least compared to outside...) The air is so thick of smoke here though that I was trying to open the door as little as possible.

Went to work. The air outside there was hurting my eyes, not to mention my lungs. It was a bit better inside, but not very good. It just felt smoky by my desk. There were people walking around with dust masks they were handing out at the guard station to those who wanted them. A lot of people just weren't there, and others were standing around talking in clusters.

I heard there were rumors the health safety group was "considering" closing down the office and sending everyone home, but no official word yet. But I didn't stick around to find out. I was just feeling miserable. I was starting to feel light headed and was getting coughing attacks because the smoke blowing in. Ed said that upstairs the smoke was worse--sounded like that might have been part of the reason they might send people home later if they decide to. Official word at this point is you don't come in today, its sick time, but quite frankly, if I stay there I WOULD be sick, so I left, picked up a dust mask on my way out (for the walk back to my car) and was glad to have it.

The air in my apartment isn't that bad...but at the same time, its not that great either, so I don't think I'm gonna stay here all day, as much more comfy as it is to be on my own couch with fancy cable and my jigsaw puzzle that I was working on. I think I may stay here another hour...maybe less if the air starts getting to me. Its nice to be at home, but I kinda like breathing too, and the air at UCSD was a bit better.

Sketch of Fire's Route:

10:51am

TV: smoke in the inland areas like escondido is in the dangerous area, and costal areas are in the very bad level. Please stay inside and do not engage in strenuous activity.

Yeah, that sounds about right

12:22pm

Wow, the sky is getting much darker and orangier...I think its time to leave tierrasanta again. even indoors this can't be good for you.

2:29pm

Living in Armageddon

I'd just like to point out that an hour ago the sky was so smokey the sun was red--and doesn't hurt your eyes to look at (i mean, aside from the pain of having your eyes open outside period), and now, the smoke is so thick you can't even see the sun.

I'm back at UCSD now, and the sky here is a red orange and its dark enough you need the lights on. Seriously, it looks like we're living in hell outside. Whether you're looking at char-grilled hillsides or smoldering ash along the roads, or just looking at the orange hue everything has outside--its like having sodium lighting 24/7. People are walking around outside with dust masks and wet t-shirts over their mouths--you kind of need it though. Bleeech.

chris took some good pictures of what the sky looks like right now. i'd say the exposure on his camera was a little dark, but yes it does really look like dusk out.

Wed. October 29th, 2003 @ 7:29am

the sky slowly but surely was improving. I slept at home last night, and woke up to a grey sky--which is a much more pleasant thing than waking up to an orange sky. I'm not sure how *much* its improving outside, but it looks a little better now.

It was nice to see "sky" again today, but I'm still cranky cuz I miss fresh air. The air inside the office was worse than outside the office, so they had the door open all day. But they're still trying to kill me slowly by means of smoke poisoning, cuz they only opened the fire door for about 20 minutes that opens directly to my floor area. On the other side of the hall, the air is breathable. On my side it feels like you're breathing chalk.

I remember as a kid we had a pencil box that was full of all our colored and white chalk for drawing on our chalkboard, and inevitably the chalk would powder up a little as you carried the box resulting in a little chalk cloud coming out of the box when you open it; the taste of the air in our office was just about the same. The conference rooms all feel like chalk too.

At least you could walk outside without a face-mask today. But dammit, this isn't riverside, our air is supposed to be a little cleaner than this...theres a reason I'm not somewhere smoggy like LA or Riverside...BLECH.

I'm tired of the grocery store strike too. I went into Albertsons today to get another package of the chese tortellini. It felt so nice to walk down an aisle of a large grocery store with stocked shelves. I probably would have been sorely disappointed if I looked at the produce aisle, so its good I was there to get exactly one thing and not a thing more. But they were out of cheese tortellini so I settled on portabello mushroom tortelli. It was alright, but not the same. And then I went to the produce market and got parsley and the best strawberries I have had in a long time. I guess I really can't complain about getting fresh sweet strawberries at the end of october for only $1.39/basket. Dude, even at Ralphs they are more than that in the *summer* when they're in season.

If you know me and strawberries, usually for my birthday I always used to want strawberry shortcake...or angel food cake (depending on which year you ask about)... with *fresh* strawberries. It just wasn't the same with frozen ones (the fresh ones are so out of season and expensive then). But then again we didn't have a place like this either. I'm suddenly having a craving for angel food cake with strawberries on it. Too bad I don't have an angel food pan.

I miss having cupboards that aren't bare. I haven't "restocked" becuase of the grocery store strike. I haven't been on a major grocery spree since then, cuz as much as I love whole foods, I can't stock up on my fav. spaghetti sauce there, or vons olives. I did get milk and chocolate croissants at Whole Foods on my way home last night (ie. I wanted breakfast but had no milk) though. But they're better as a supplement to a stockpile of food--the treats, not the staples.

I want to look in the freezer and see more than two popsicles, burger buns, and pizza snacks. Something that resembles food you can make a meal out of--or at least a smoothie (I want my blender NOW whaaaah). I want more in the fridge than that lone beer that I never seem to drink and bottled water. Even the butter is on the last stick and the tub butter is gone. There's nothing that's *food*...its all condiments, ketchup and pickles and caramel syrup. Nothing that resembles "snack food".

And you know what I'd like more than anything right now? A big rainstorm. I don't care if my sunroof is leaking. I can deal with the wet clothes--especially with the benefits it would do for the air quality right now. Wash away all that ash and soot, yeah, I think some pouring rain would be mighty nice right now. The sky looked good and threatening to be menacing leaving work tonight. I heard there's a possibility of rain soon. I really hope so. Pray for a rainstorm will ya? Or maybe at least that the air cleans up a little?

Rawr. I'm ready for some change around here. Weather go away. I want to go back to San Diego's usual lack of weather and perpetual combination of fog and sunny skies and clean air. Smoke go away. I think I must have sat their scratching my head for about an hour trying to figure out what I was working on cuz I just couldn't think straight and concentrate. I moved my computer over to my desk in the other corner of my cube where it gets better circulation (ie. the "cold" part of my cube that I usually don't like sitting in)...and get this, my desk is so low that even with my chair on the lowest setting (which is still too high for my height) my legs hit the underside of the desk drawer. Ick.

I want to open my windows--and have cool clean fresh air blow in. I miss fresh air. I miss excercise. I want to go on a long bike ride--and not kill my lungs by doing so. I want to go lay outside and bask in the sun. I want air that is breathable at work. I want to be able to think straight, and not feel like I can't concentrate because I just want to lay down and nap. I want ventilation and circluation. I am tired of walking into my apartment and it smelling like grandma's shut closed bedrooms where we used to play with our dollhouses.

[Coworker] who I ate lunch with again today was saying he got a picture of the strikers wearing face masks in sooty polluted air holding signs saying "save health care"--and that pretty much sums up the whole strike in that image.

Current Mood: cranky
Current Music: the universal cynic

this is what the air quality in San Diego does to you right now. I was trying to type "fruit" and it came out "ftue", which I'm not sure how you mess it up that bad. cuz that's first off, not even the right number of letters, not to mention a couple of those are on the wrong keys...

It smells like winter.

I'm so not used to this whole daylight savings thing yet. I left work at not even 6:00, and yet, the sky was pitch black already. I guess I do like it being light out when I wake up though--my body hasn't fully adjusted to the new time. I woke up at about 6:30--a half hour earlier than I wanted to get up. But on the bright side that meant I got up early enough to get to work at 8am.

I decided it smells like winter as I got out of my car, because the air was damp and cool. It finally did "rain" this afternoon, but it didn't rain long enough for the ground to stay wet. Well, it started raining about lunch time, just about when I went to my dentist appointment. But still, the air is finally cleaner enough that I can open my window--that the grandma smell in the apartment is finally "worse" than the air quality outside. Ooooh, how i've missed fresh air.

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Suzi Quatro - Kiss Me Goodbye

San Diego Wildfires

October 2003

Doomsday

Living in Armageddon

It smells like winter.