you smell somthing?

if you live anywhere else in the world, and you wake up to the strong smell of smoke, methinks you would likely panic slightly, gather your wits, your loved ones and any and all important documents you might need and, depending on where you found the smoke was coming from, get the hell out of your home.

if, however, you live here where i do and wake up to smoke, you just realize that there's another dang wildfire here, close the windows and head out to the 'net to see where it is.
then, you see that the Governator has declared seven counties here as disaster areas due to wildfires.

ooops.

so we have a few going on here. a big one in Malibu, which is about 60 miles west from us. it's probably that one that i can smell, but believe me when i say that it smells more like six miles from us, rather than 60.
[edited to add: ooops. i guess there's a fire also in Ontario, about 60 miles north of us, as well, and another one i think here in the O.C. the TV news is showing closures of roads in south O.C.]

here in Mostly Smoggy, er, Smokey California, we have these outta control winds called the Santa Anas. they're at their worst in September. and yes, this is October, but the winds were horrible yesterday.

they always effect those of us with allergies. my mom suffers the worst and usually ends up losing her voice for a few days. surprisingly, she hasn't. yet.

seriously, here you cannot have these kind of winds without having some kind of fire, somewhere.

waking up this morning, however, was like waking up in the middle of a bonfire...just without your biscuits burning. job one, was turning off the window fan in our bedroom. next, try to close some if not all of the windows.

and dang if i can't still smell it.

there will be a buttload of ash out there today. so it's a good thing i didn't wash my car yesterday. i thought about it, but just felt lazy.

see?! being lazy paid off!! HA! you were wrong, Mom!!

i remember some years ago when we had a pretty big fire out here, that the ash was settling pretty thickly on the wipers of my car. the asphalt was gray, instead of black.

the sky here usually has an orangy tinge to it, thanks to the smog. but today, it'll be brown.

so let's pray that the Santa Anas go away, so that the firemen can knock these fires out. that no more people lose their homes...or worse.

because if i wake up to the smell of something, i'd like it to be the smell of someone cooking me breakfast.

dream on, little girl. dream on.