Summer: THREE DAYS!!

Wow. Too much to catch up on.

I can't go to sleep because I feel compelled to refresh the city website every five minutes to see if there is a change in the fire situation. We live in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains amid tons and tons of Deodor Pines and there is a fire blazing in the mountains behind us. I just took the baby for a drive to maybe get her to sleep and to check out the fire. Our cars were covered in ash and the air smells like a campfire. We are about a two minute drive from the Angeles Crest Highway which goes right through our town and the fire is up that crest in the Angeles National Forest which butts up against our town. Johnson's Camp is up there so I am wondering about the Johnson's tonight. When I drove over to the crest it was swamped with police cars blocking the highway, fire trucks coming and going (helicopters have been going over head all day long as well) and hordes of parked cars and people everywhere with cameras and video cameras. I went back to get Brandon so he could see it and I taped a bit myself. It is strange to see nature like that up close. Scary beautiful. The flames were huge and engulfing a large area on the upper part of the mountain. If there were wind I would be really worried because the flames are high. I'm wondering if the Johnson's and others living up there have been evacuated. There is another fire behind the mountain closer to us, but from what I have read there is a fire break up there and so far it is holding.

Just checked the website again. They've been evacuated. I'm going for another drive to see how fast the fire is moving and my husband is putting on his pajamas to watch an episode of MASH . . .