Trying to get back in gear

The latest update on the fires is that they are largely contained.  Campus will be re-opening tomorrow, after being closed since the evacuation; commencement has been rescheduled for next weekend (when I won't be able to make it, alas).  Older Daughter's prom has also been rescheduled for a few weeks from now.  So, for those of us whose homes and property managed to escape unscathed, life is starting to get back to normal. 

And I am trying to get my head around how to work posting here into my life in a realistic way.  Not yet sure how to do that (obviously), and I haven't taken any good pictures of knitted finished objects, even though I have been knitting.  The latest is a little sweater, short-sleeved, knitted out of some Blue Skies Silk Alpaca that I got when I was at WEBS in March (I could write a whole ode about how much I loved WEBS); the yarn is a lovely navy blue, and I think I'll wear this one a lot when it's done.

Other things have been happening around here that aren't knitting related.  Just to show a few:

(Photo removed for now)

That's Older Daughter.  With her license.  Who would have thought?  She's loving the independence (which is limited by the fact that we don't have three cars, and have no immediate plans for changing that situation).  And I am loving the fact that I have someone who is currently eager to run errands - I've been waiting for this day...  I'm also loving the days that I have managed to take the train into work so she can take the car to school and pick me up afterwards.  I always loved taking the train when we lived in the Bay Area, but with kid drop-off and pick-up, it hasn't made sense.  I'm hoping to work more of that into my schedule next year.

We also have a new family member:

A friend's son's cat had kittens; I wasn't in the market, exactly, but when she mentioned a gray polydactyl kitten in the litter (check out those extra toes!), I knew that it was fate.

 She likes Rick.

 And she and the big cat are working to reach detente.

 

She wants to be just like him when she grows up.

When she's not sleeping.

Her name is Bastet, and I think she's going to fit in just fine.

Overlong hiatus - drive-by update

It has been a ridiculously long time since I posted.  I keep trying to find a way to talk about everything that's going on without boring people to tears or sharing too much.  I will soon; and I also have much knitting to share when I do, including the Bohus (!!), which is done, and which I was able to wear on a trip to the East Coast when they still had snow and it was entirely appropriate.

That's for another time, though.  Meanwhile, this drive-by posting is to let people know that we're surviving the fires (thank you to those who have been checking in), and to ask if all of you in fire-danger areas are OK?

Tess and I were on campus yesterday when the San Marcos fire started.  Within about five minutes, the view from my office window went from a small plume of smoke to this:

At which point, I told the folks in my department to get the heck off campus, and started banging on doors.  Note: no fire alarms went off in the buildings, and the alert system which calls for things like evacuations can only be heard outside.  Note:  it's finals, so a lot of people were in classrooms, with phones off, getting no notice that they needed to be getting off campus.  

It took more than 20 minutes to get out of the first floor of the parking garage, and another 40+ to get off campus.  We clearly need a better (read: actual) evacuation plan.  As we sat stuck in traffic, this was our view:

We did finally make it out (my contingency plan was to abandon the car and head for the dirt parking lot), and home.  It's quiet here, and there don't seem to be any new fires in the area (fingers crossed).  The girls' schools are closed through the weekend, and prom is postponed for my older daughter.  My campus is closed and all commencements are cancelled.  The fire seems to have kicked up over there again:

So we're keeping the pets indoors, and a weather eye on the smoke.  It's 100+ out there, and the humidity is under 10% - I can't believe there are people fighting fires in that heat, but I am so grateful that they are.  Stay safe if you're in the midst of any of this!