When we were in the fourth grade, our neighbor's house burned down. A thief was using the house as a base of operations while he looted the community. As the cops closed in, he set the house on fire as a diversionary tactic. For some reason, I had a crazy dream that night and made my dad come sleep with me in my room. A few hours later, he woke up with a start and thought it was our living room on fire. Later, he joked that he went immediately to rescue my mom because hey, you can always make more kids, but wives are once in a lifetime.
Yesterday, I glibbly suggested that the fires in Southern California were less scary than a flight of Raiders fans. Twenty four hours later, it's Fire 451 - Raiders' fans 0. Most of the people we know in San Diego are from Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Penasquitos, and Poway. Evacuation! Our old house is in that area but I think it's okay -- I notated our homes in little blue circles on the map.
It amazes me how much the Internet has changed the way we track disasters. I was right across the river during 9-11 so never really experienced something like this from the outside. Watching San Diego burn from up here in LA, it's frustrating the lack of information we have available. Then again, awesome people like Chris (whoever he is) whipped up stuff like this Google Maps / SD Fires mashup incredibly fast so he deserves some sort of medal.The little church where we attended kindergarten burned down. That church is located a few dozen yards from Hong's house (Hotel Pan), which quite possibly might be the only house in his cul-de-sac that still stands. I hope the hang out of all hang outs is safe and standing proud.
The fire's headed toward Rancho Santa Fe and Del Mar. Guess where our other house is? Rancho Santa Fe and Del Mar. I'm hoping the friendly fire decides to skip our community. Strangely, I can't think of many things I'd go down there to save. Pictures, mementos, important papers, all that stuff of course. But aside from the obvious, what else is there?
Luckily my mom's in Taiwan. Hi Mom.
