At last count there are 14 fires burning in Southern California. So far none of the fires are nearby to me but, at the rate they are starting up, I am starting to get worried. I’ve decided to start taking digital pictures of everything in my house and am getting a few things ready in case I need to evacuate. I don’t think it’s going to happen, but we did have a fire in the foothills above our house back in the 90’s that came extremely close.

I stayed home from work today and think I’m finally over the flu/food poisoning/whatever that I came down with over the weekend. Have had the tv on all day watching the continuous fire coverage. They recently announced that more people in So.Cal. have been evacuated than the total number of people evacuated during Hurricane Katrina! Fortunately the property damage hasn’t been even close to the Katrina damage at this point.

They also just announced that one of the fires in Orange County is for certain an arson fire. I don’t understand why anyone would do that. Even if no one is hurt and no homes are destroyed, the burned areas are there for years. And blackened hillsides are not very pretty.