JS, Tonks and I are still at Debra’s house. JS’s area is no longer under mandatory evacuation, but the air quality is still horrendous. We may check it out today and let him get a few more things from home, but I doubt we’ll be staying there any time too soon.
My place is still under evacuation, and it’s very hard to determine what’s up on the news….I mean, everyone doing a wonderful job of reporting what they can and stuff, nothing like THAT, it’s just that some of the information on what areas are safe and stuff conflict with other reports. What I can determine is that my evacuation might be over within the next day or two, or it might be as long as November 1. I haven’t heard that it’s been burned, but there are places less than a mile away that have burnt down.
I’m trying to remain optimistic, but not overly so. Mostly I’m just in this weird state of suspended reality. I’m very thankful that I’m OK and my family and friends are OK. But in some ways it’s just not real. When it becomes real, it’s overwhelming. There’s too much destruction, too much loss, too much fear. More fires keep cropping up; but, on the other hand, the winds are changing and fire fighters are optimistic that this change will allow them to start putting more of the fires out. And just like everyone keeps saying, the fire fighters are doing a fantastic around the clock job to keep people and their homes safe. There’s only so much they can do in a situation like this.
The stories about the volunteers and the young kid trying to save his elderly neighbors home, all of these things are just wonderful to hear. San Diego has really banded together. People are coming out of the woodwork to help - giving time, money, goods, etc…I have a friend who’s sending a package of clothes to me, unasked. My boss has been wonderful to open her home, and if she hadn’t, I don’t know where we would have gone, a lot of the evacuation centers are full now.
I think today JS and I might get out of the house and try to find a mall or something just to wander around and do something other than watching the news.
The idea that life might get back to normal is not even something I’m thinking about. I don’t want to set myself up for being frustrated and disappointed if the recovery process takes longer than I imagine. I don’t know if any of my possessions or even if my home is damaged….and it’s not that I’m totally concerned with it, I’m not (totally), I mean, worrying can’t do anything to protect belongings….it’s just that without even knowing how bad things are, I can’t begin to plan how to make them better.