moving right along
well, after a "Firestorm 2003!" -induced 5 day weekend, i'm back at the office. our route to work takes us through scripps ranch, the community hardest hit by the san diego fires. 350+ homes were burned in that little community alone. the guardrails were dangling on the sides of the road because the posts were too charred to hold them up. erik smuggled the digital camera to las vegas this weekend, so i'm going to have to lug the nikon to work one of these days so i can document this. it's unbelievable. sure, the standard fire damage... burnt, peeling trees, blackened earth, chimneys rising above the rubble, scattered survivor houses with still-green grass and intact patio-furniture standing proud amongst the still-smouldering, charred warzone. our usual non-stop carpool chit chat was interupted by "wow"s and "holy fucking shit"s and complete pauses as we took it all in.

the fire had also reached the parking lot of my office. seriously. the brush and hillsides behind the building are toast. i can't believe it didn't burn the building. i was also secretly hoping it would, but let's just keep that quiet, eh?



the mood in san diego these days can be summed up in pretty much one word: preoccupied.