We're still here

So far.

I finally got to sleep after midnight last night, after packing tents and sleeping bags into the car. I had a (very basic) plan for a middle of the night evacuation, involving loading two kids, two cats, a dog, two guinea pigs, water, pet food, medication, litter box, snacks, the computer, camera, Kauni, and photo albums into the car (in that order) and heading for the beach. I had all the phones turned up loud, in case the reverse-911 call came, and a flashlight by my bed, in case we lost electricity and had to evacuate in the dark.

K woke me up at 6:30 to tell me that it smelled like smoke. Of course, that's to be expected when there are fires burning all over the place. They don't seem to be near us, but the ash is falling out of the sky like little snow flurries. The humidity is below 10%, and the temperatures are supposed to go over 90 today. At the beaches. With luck, the Santa Anas will die down sometime tonight, and things will get easier on the firefighters.

At this point, I've given up on trying to concentrate enough to get grading done, and I'm going to knit and listen to radio updates on the computer (our local NPR station is out on the radio, since their tower burned down, but they're streaming live). Thanks everyone who has written with good wishes. I'm trying to email or comment on your blogs if Blogger lets me; if I can't get through to you, please know that your comments really mean a lot. I'll try to update later if I can.