As the sun goes down....

Here are final pics of the day. Not much has changed since the last blog. We'll continue to watch the news overnight.

I am supposed to fly out of San Diego to Houston tomorrow, and we are still planning on that happening.

This last photo is the most dramatic. You can see how the smoke has really traveled north now, and it makes for an interesting picture with the sunset as the backdrop

Some travelblog type photos

Since we are basically wasting away the day in front of the television, I thought I'd take some time to update you on some of the places I've visited recently.


After we got back from Houston I had to fly Mt. Vernon, IL to visit a client and give an analysis of how a CRM system could be implemented for them. Mt. Vernon is in the middle of nowhere. In fact, the closest airport was 2.5 hours away in St. Louis, so that is where I flew in.

One perk of the trip is that Hertz messed up my reservation somehow, so instead of getting a Toyota Corolla or equivalent, I rolled in style with a Ford Edge, complete with navigational system and leather interior. I got this for the same price as the original reservation. Thanks Hertz!


When I drove back into St. Louis after the meetings were done I took this pic of the St. Louis arch with my cell phone (thru the car windshield, as I was driving 65 mph on the freeway at the time!):


















After I got home, Alberto and I were planning to go to San Francisco for a day - ePartners wanted me to go to a Microsoft training and I wanted him to see SanFran.

We got bumped, however, when I got asked to cover for another consultant going on vacation for a customer in Ft. Lauderdale.

So, off to Ft. Lauderdale I went after just a few days of being back at home, for 4 days.


From the moment I got there it was raining non stop. It felt like a tropical storm was passing through. I stayed at the Doubletree Suites and really enjoyed it. The hotel was right on the IntraCoastal Waterway, and my room faced the ocean.



Some of the perks of this room included a nice wall mounted plasma screen tv, a comfy cushy bed with lots of fluffy pillows and (my favorite) warm chocolate chip cookies upon arrival!

Here are some pics:


water taxi cruising down the IntraCoastal Waterway












The view below from my window







Ok, funny story time:

one night, around 10:30, I heard a knock outside my door. My door was very close to the door next to me, so as I looked out the peephole I could see that the knock was for my neighbor.


I was just about to turn away when I heard the woman at the doorway say "I'm here for the service you ordered..." as my neighbor opened the door. That was when I noticed what the woman was dressed like. With a super tight pink tank top and a barely there black mini skirt, it all of a sudden occurred to me that this woman might be a hooker!


So now I have witnessed my first hooker visitation.


While I was there, Stephanie convinced me that I should walk to the ocean for sunrise, which was just a couple of blocks away. Being three hours ahead of my normal schedule, I was hesitant, but I decided that I should do it.


The next morning, I made the trip down to the beach. It was such a stormy week, and this day was no different. The black low-lying clouds were really ominous and the beach had a perpetual blue tint everywhere. Here are some photos from that day:

entrance to the beach from A1A



crashing waves









a lonely barge on the ocean





But that wasn't all that I saw of Ft. Lauderdale....this was just week one! I had to go back to following week as well for the go-live event at the client's office.


This week was much less stormy, and I got some starkly different sunrise photos on that trip:


what a difference a few days make!















People have to be careful to not lure turtles off the beach with their lights!



















I love this ebb and flow picture!












Breakfast Time!









Here comes the sun!

Postcard Perfect!

I also met a really cool person on the trip, another consultant from my company and she and I hit it off right from the start! We even went shopping together at the local outlet there, and had a yummy dinner with decadent molten lava chocolate cake for dessert. :D MMMMM YUMMY

I am looking forward to the day when Alberto and I can visit her and her husband at her home in Boston.

There was one additional perk to the trip! Due to some crazy alignment of the stars, I was flying into IAH at the same time that Peter was. So, the three of us got to have a coffee break together in the airport before going our separate ways again!

Peter and Tracy

me n Tracy

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!