Still here....

It is surreal to be here in San Diego County during this whole ordeal. We have been watching the tv all day and hearing things like:
dryest it's been in 130 years
over 250,000 evacuated from different parts of the county
humidity levels below 10% (many below 5%)
Winds ranging from 25 mph to 60 mph

We've seen incredible photos of whole sides of mountains on fire and neighborhoods choked with smoke.

But here, it's very very quiet. No one has left our neighborhood, and no evacuation has been called here. The winds are very gusty outside, but the smell of smoke that permeated here a couple of hours ago is all but gone.

Still, I can tell there is acrid smoke in the air because my nose is starting to burn, and I've only set foot outside for a grand total of 15 minutes all day.

Even the nicely defined billows of smoke we could see in the morning are mostly gone. I guess that is because of the windy conditions. It's gotten hotter and hotter all day long and now it kind of feels like Arizona here - just damn hot.

The fire to the north of us (in Fallbrook) apparently burst out of control after officials thought they had it in hand, and now there is a new wave of evacuation calls for several communities north and east of us. Still, nothing for our area.

The San Marcos fire, which is the one that I was most worried about, doesn't seem to have gone anywhere at all today. So, here we still sit, although we've started to doze off a bit from all the anticipation and no action.

The thing that bothers me right now is that if we were called to leave at some point tonight, all the shelters nearest to us have already been filled to capacity. Where would we go?

Here are some of the fireblog headline updates:


Governor calls in the state National Guard
3:24 p.m.

Military offers route through Camp Pendleton
2:53 p.m.

San Diego Harbor Police join the wildfire attack
2:40 p.m

More evacuations ordered – The Emergency Alert System (EAS) has been activated.
2:22 p.m.

Mandatory evacuations, updated
2:10 p.m.
As of 1:45 p.m mandatory evacuations are ordered for the folowing area:
Everything south of Scripps Poway Parkway
North of MCAS Miramar
East of Interstate 15
West of Highway 67

Shelter updates
2:01 p.m.
San Diego County Office of Emergency Serivces has just issued the following fire storm shelter update:

As of 1:45 p.m., here is the most current status of Emergency Shelters:

Shelters that still have capacity
Qualcomm Stadium
Santana High School
Poway Community Park
Poway Girls & Boys Club
Campo Community Center
Mission Hills High School

Full Shelters
Del Mar Fairgrounds
Steele Canyon High School
Escondido High School
Mira Mesa High School
San Marcos High School (temporary shelter)
these are all the ones that are closest to us!

Mandatory Fallbrook evacuation
1:05 p.m.

Mandatory Valley Center evacuation
1:05 p.m.

Mandatory evacuations in Poway announced
1:00 p.m.

Updates for Harris, Witch and McCoy fires
12:58 p.m.

The Harris Fire is 20,000 acres and 5 percent contained. They are currently mapping the fire. Aircraft is periodically grounded due to high winds and visibility. The Southwest Powerline was shut off yesterday and to remain shut for unknown duration of time. San Diego County Sheriff and U. S. Border Patrol are handling immigrant issues including the rescuing, medical treatment, and identification of individuals. Otay Lakes Road is next fire decision making point for impact to San Diego City and Chula Vista. Multiple structures have been destroyed. There are 55 engines, 4 bulldozers, 9 fire crews, 6 helicopters, 5 airtankers (assigned), 6 water tenders (400 firefighters). The cause is still under investigation.

The Witch Fire is 10,000 acres, 0% contained. The fire is still spread westerly. Currently there is 28 engines, 1 dozer, 14 fire crews, 2 water tenders, 18 overhead (369 firefighters). Multiple structures have been destroyed. There have been no injuries to firefighters and one injury to a civilian. Communities threatened: Highland Valley, City of San Diego/Rancho Bernardo, City of Escondido, City of Lakeside, Barona Indian Reservation, City of Poway, Wild Animal Park, Mt. Woodson, Muth Valley. Wind driven fire with spotting up to 1/2 mile. Rapid fire spread burning down hill, down canyon. The fire is burning primarily in unburned fuel between the 2003 Paradise and Cedar Fires.

The McCoy Fire is a U.S. Forest Service fire it is at Boulder Creek and Eagle Peak. It is 400 acres and 5% contain. They are looking at full containment on October 23rd. One structure has been destroyed. Currently they have 5 engines, and 3 overhead which is about 30 firefighters. The cause is under investigation.

The Rice Fire is 300 acres 0 percent contained. The location is in Rice Canyon in the northern part of San Diego County. The fire started on October 22 at 4:16 am. 250 structures are threatened and 1 has been destroyed. No mandatory evacuations at this time. The cause is under investigation. Firefighters are attempting to keep the fire in the area of Rice Canyon to east, I-15 to the west, Rainbow Heights to north and Hwy 76 to South. The fire is currently burning into agricultural areas.

The path of the fires

Despite a lack of saying so on the news, it would seem that the fires in the middle of the county are creeping a bit northward. Evacuations have slowly been inching up the map, from south of Del Dios Highway to Rancho Santa Fe and now to some parts of Solana Beach. This is still a small distance from us, so we are still sitting tight.

In the meantime, the fires north of us don't seem to be going anywhere - at least they don't mention them much on the TV. I guess that means no news is good news.

We heard one reporter say that there was an evacuation call for the area south of 78 in between I-15 and I-5. This is definitely our area, but we can't find this anywhere else, and we've received no call....so we are staying put for now.

In the meantime, the smoke that was to the south of us has crept northwest, so that now it is blowing behind the houses across the street from ours. This picture is taken from the front porch:














The wind is picking up again. These Santa Ana winds can be really strong. Last year, they completely uprooted one of my rose bushes. At this moment, I'm watching all the trees around our house sway from side to side.

Alberto is using this time to douse all of our plants in the back with water in preparation for whatever comes our way...

Fire Update

The sun is high in the sky now and we can see the smoke to the south of us blowing at a high speed in a westerly direction. This is how things look from our front yard.


There are a total of 7 wildfires burning around the county. Right now, they are to the north, east and south of us. The thing that is making this so bad are the Santa Ana winds. They are really strong, so strong that planes/helicopters with fire retardant can't fly because they'd get whipped around too much.

The latest around the county is:

9:16 a.m.
Interstate 15:
Interstate 15 has been reopened by the California Highway Patrol in both directions. The exception is to the offramps between Lake Hodges and Mercy Road. The offramps only will remain closed.

Conditions of the patients currently hospitalized at UCSD Medical Center-Hillcrest are:

3 Firefighters are in Critical Condition
1 Firefighter is in Fair Condition
4 Civilians in Critical Condition
4 Civilians in Fair Condition
1 Civilian in Good Condition

Injuries are: Critical:
60% burn injuries
29% burn injuries
28% burn injuries
12% burn injuries
8% burn injuries w/inhalation damage
5% burn injuries w/inhalation damage
5% burn injuries w/inhalation damage

Fair: 17% burn injuries
9% burn injuries
10% burn injuries
6% burn injuries
5% burn w/inhalation damage
Good: 4% burn injuries

Latest evacuation notices
8:32 a.m.
Here are the latest evacuation notices. Over 30,000 Reverse 911 calls have gone out.
Coronado Hills Fire (in San Marcos): Notifications made to 1,000 residents in the communities of Coronado Hills and Discovery Hills in San Marcos and to Attebury Rd. and Deadwood Rd. They were evacuated to Escondido High School.

Mission (Fallbrook) Fire: Notifications made to Rainbow Area residents (I-15 on west, Rainbow Valley on the north, Pala Temecula on the East and Pala Rd. on the south) instructing residents to evacuate to the west.

Witch Fire: Evactuation notices have gone out to Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve; Del Dios; Lake Hodges; in Poway at Espola Rd., Old Coach Rd., Heritage Rd. and Stage Coach Rd. Reverse 911 notification has been made for Poway in the area bordered by Pomerado on the west, Twin Peaks on the south and Espola on the north and east. Poway has established an evacuation center at Poway Civic Center.

Harris Fire: Notifications have been made to residents of Mother Grundy Truck Trail and Deer Horn Valley. They were evacuated to Steele Canyon High School. Future evacuatees will be directed to Santana High School in Santee. Mandatory evacuation in progress for Coyote Holler. They were evacuated East to Campo. Mandatory evactuation notices sent for areas north of Lake Wohlford.

Residents should call 2-1-1 for all non-emergency calls related to this fire. Due to large call volume, residents are also urged to find fire information online at www.211SanDiego.org Residents may also call the City of San Diego Community Access Phone at 619-570-1070 for additional fire information.

Fire total: 18,000 acres burning
7:25 a.m.
The San Diego County Office of
Emergency Services reports there are some 18,000 acres of San Diego County
burning right now. That includes the areas burning in the city of San Diego,
officials said.
The fires are zero percent contained.

Still no evacuation order where we are.

Two more pics from the wildlife refuge, a block away from the house:

When we took this pic, we could actually see the smoke being blown west right in front of our eyes...

Carlsbad in the distance...

Mandatory evacuations are being called

I just saw on the San Diego paper's website the following:

BREAKING NEWS: Mandatory evacuations ordered all the way west to Interstate 5 and north of state Route 56; homes burning, residents trapped; Qualcomm Stadium set up as evacuation center

The paper's 'fire blog' has this latest posting:

Boundaries on western mandatory evacuation area
7:09 a.m.
According to San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders: Everyone north of state Route 56, south of Del Dios Highway, west of Interstate 15 and east of Interstate 5 should evacuate. Qualcomm Stadium in Mission Valley is opening as an evacuation center.

You can read it here: http://www.signonsandiego.com/

This does not include us yet - Del Dios highway (the northern border) is a bit further south. We'll be packing the important stuff though, just in case...

San Diego is burning

San Diego is burning again, almost exactly four years from the 2003 Cedar Fire. We woke up to the sky being filled with smoke this morning, and news reports show that the fire has just jumped I-15, which is about 10 miles from our home.

Alberto has been called and told not to go into work, as the location of his job site is in the middle of all of this mess. I think I will stay close to home too.

We are only 2 miles from the coast, so I do not think the fire will make it here...but the Santa Ana winds were incredibly strong last night and, like they said on the news, anything can happen.

They also told us that if police came around with an evacuation call, to please do what they say, as it unlikely they'll be back a second time.

Here are some pictures I took from the Cedar fire 4 years ago. It was from my cell phone, so not the best quality, but you can see the glow of everything in the sky:

October 2003 - This was taken from my bedroom window in the morning

October 2003 - Here you can see all the gunk in the air as I was driving to work that day. That is ash falling on my windshield, and the glow of the fire is visible on the horizon.

The Cedar fire was further away than this one is, so we're going to play it safe today.

We'll let you know how it turns out!

Back from Houston

Alberto and I got home yesterday from spending a week and a half in Houston.

He went to do the tile job that Mr/Mrs Frink had asked for, and I went to work in the Houston ePartners office and also to touch base with as many clients and contractors of Backstage Presence as possible.

The trip went really well! The Frinks found us to be good houseguests, we found them to be even better hosts, and everyone had a grand old time.

I also got to touch base with some friends - Alex arranged for a small group of us to meet up at The Flat, which was a very cool kind of ambient loungy kind of place with yummy frozen mojitos! People who came out were Alex, Bartek/Edyta, Brenda (another bro), Nicol (Alex's friend who is going to work for me :D ), and we also saw Kai at West Gray Cafe. It was a ot of fun and everyone enjoyed themselves. Thanks for putting the group together Alex!

I also got to see Tarush there! That was a nice surprise - he drove in from Dallas on Saturday night just to see me and also met up with us at the Flat :) That's a good big bro! He also got to meet Alberto which was an added plus. Thank you for coming to town!!

We also got to spend an evening with Bartek and Edyta and learned more about what has been happening in their lives, and also a little more about Polish geography. Edyta made a very yummy traditional Polish meal for dinner which I repeated 50 times but now cannot remember - but it was really good with egg noodles and mushrooms and onion and herbs and spices and other things that I can't recall. Thank you for the lovely dinner!

Backstage Presence had a great barbecue on Sunday that Gene and the Fashionable Events crew helped us put together. It was a small group, but just the right size and everyone got to hang out and chat with each other in a non-work, non-stress setting. It's nice to do that every once in a while!

I also gave Tracy a thank you gift for everything that she's done with Backstage Presence, and I think she liked it :)

We got to have dinner with Brent and Andrea at Collina's, got tipsy on wine and great pizza and then went back to their place to play some high stakes poker. Ok, so it wasn't very high stakes, but we all had fun and Andrea ended up kicking everyone's ass!

One special treat was being able to see someone I haven't seen in many years, and who happened to find me on the internet a week before we were flying out. That was Gina, one of my old friends from Girl Scouts, and her now 10-year old daughter Kyra. I haven't seen them since Kyra was maybe 2 years old, and quite a lot has changed.

Kyra is absolutely beautiful, and is also very tall. She looks quite a bit like Xavier (but only the good parts! :) ) but she has Gina's razor sharp wit. She is clearly extremely intelligent and is also a very loving sweet girl. I was really happy to see her and be able to witness the young woman she is turning into.

We spent the evening getting caught up on what each other was up to - and then we went to a party that happened to be going on across the street! Everyone there was Mexican so Alberto immediately felt right at home and it was just a matter of minutes before he and Trevor were off to the garage for some tequila shots and beer.

Those guys were really nice, and also stuffed our tummies full of food. It didn't matter one bit that we told them we had just eaten fajitas - they wouldn't take no for an answer as they handed up shrimp cocktail and carnita tacos, along with some fresh and very cold beer. Who am I to cause trouble? ;)

An hour and a half later, we mosied back across the street and wrapped up the evening.

The ePartners office is just across the street from the Galleria, so I got to enjoy walking to Starbucks for coffee every morning, and having lunch in the Fox Sports Grill and La Madeleine. There wasn't much work for me to do, but I did get the opportunity to interact with a few ePartners colleagues on a more one-on-one basis, which I always enjoy. I hope that I can continue to visit the ePartners Houston office and work from there as needed.

On the weekends we had a great time swimming in the Frinks' backyard swimming pool! Alberto liked it so much he started asking if we could put a pool in our yard too! I have to admit, it was really nice....


So, it's back to the real world. Well, kind of....I am actually back on a plane today, headed to Mt. Vernon Illinois for 2 days of CRM discovery with a client. Then it's back to SD on Friday where we'll spend the weekend at home before making a brief one night trip to San Francisco. I will be there for a Microsoft training on the 24th, and I am taking Alberto with me. I hope he enjoys it!

Prove It!

Everybody who gave a shit enough to appear as if they cared got to log their sentimental moment and perfect sound byte this week in New Orleans (well, truth be told several chose to issue statements while keeping a safe distance).

Now prove it - who is going to truly own and passionately act on the need to rebuild our Gulf Coast?

You decide if you think any of these peoples' words are worth a damn red cent:

Dems
Obama
Hillary
Edwards
Richardson
Dodd

Repubs
Guiliani
McCain
Hunter

I was unable to find any mention whatsoever of our Gulf Coast from the following:
Joe Biden, Mike Gravel or Dennis Kucinich
Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee or Ron Paul

You form your own opinion on why that might be.


Yes, there are some other candidates out there, but they are so insignificant to me that I can't even remember their names.

There was a mere 3 minute clip on the Today show reminding everyone of the devastation of the Gulf Coast , and then they had to get back to the important news - Craig's sex-in-the-bathroom debacle was apparently more important.

Yes, two years have passed - S-O W-H-A-T!!!

People are still just as homeless and just as destitute and just as desperate for money and a return to normal life as they were before.

There is a massive diaspora of Gulf Coast residents all across the country.

Long time Gulf Coast residents - people who were once proud of their long and varied heritage - have abandoned their cities and neightborhoods who need them back so badly.

And even two years later, there are still *new reports* of neighborhoods just now getting back on their feet with electricity and basic utilities.

They are mixed in with tales of lawlessness and insanity.

There are still mold-infested houses that are completely uninhabitable - only now they have to share space with the FEMA trailers that seem like inescapable tombs to so many people.

The fact that two years have passed and this is still the condition of the Gulf Coast is not only disgraceful, it is *criminal*.

Bush actually went out of his way to appear concerned about the Gulf Coast this morning, but where was his concern for the region during his State of the Union address?

While extolling the virtues of his new initiatives (and that excellent surge plan), where was his compassion for the Gulf Coast and its meager grip on existence?

The time to act in restoring the dignity, safety, and viability of the region is long overdue.

Do any one of these would-be leaders actually have the integrity and passion for humanity to do anything at all??

Please allow me to share with you some photos of the region from when I was there (Last June I was able to travel with Collins to rebuild homes in Gulfport, Mississippi):

The remains of what used to be the bridge between Ocean Springs and Biloxi, Mississippi

A shattered bridge at sunset

One of thousands of houses along the Gulf Coast that have been rendered utterly useless by the floods

The empty shell of what used to be a small market on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico

This used to be the yacht club at Lake Pontchartrain, in New Orleans

The remains of a dozen boats, after Lake Pontchartrain flooded its banks

Some of the boats made it out of the water and into the streets and neighborhood next to the Lake. That is my sister's car parked in front of some of the boats.

People, these photos were taken almost one year after the disaster!

Why are there still boats in the streets of the city almost a year later?

Why are there still people unable to rebuild today??

Can anyone make any sense of this?

Whatever happened to each of us being our brother's keeper?

For God's sake, please do something.

Write to whoever you believe is going to be the next President and implore them to make the Gulf Coast a priority by taking *action* and not just espousing fluffy words. Our President today has failed us in our most dire hours of need; don't let the next leader do the same.

I've written to various people and media outlets, including multiple letters and emails to the one I think will be President.

Join me!