St. Spyridon Greek Church - Hillcrest

Take a good look...

I think I had the last slice of pie in Julian.

This is Hell, Dude!

Today, grazing through the Rite Aid Ice-cream buffet in downtown San Diego did not bring the usual joy and satisfaction with wildfires annihilating million dollar homes and baby mountain animals being scorched less than 30 minutes away. For a transplanted Minnesotan the combination of close proximity and uneven destruction is hard to wrap my head around. I'm in the equivalent of the Green Zone: lots of readily available ice-water and fresh food while chaos and destruction is happening out there. Good thing I really love Hillcrest and don't EVER intend on living in a mountain estate or mountain shack. I'm happy with the Green Zone and I'll visit the mountains after it rains. The above title of this blog post was taken from an excellent article on the flames of southern california, specifically Malibu. It also explains Santa Anas in a little more detail which was helpful for me since I'm used to weather words like Arctic Air, Black Ice, Mosquito Pond, Sub-Zero, etc.

Let Malibu Burn by Mike Davis
http://www.radicalurbantheory.com/mdavis/letmalibuburn.html

Differing States of Emergency

It's very surreal here. I'm in downtown San Diego, half of my office was advised to stay home. Many of our clients either stayed home or had their buildings shut down and were sent home. San Diego residents are advised to stay off the highways and their cell phones. My car was speckled with ashes this morning. The whole city smells like a campfire. Every hour we're hearing of more evacuations: The Wild Animal park evacuated it's most important animals, (but aren't they all important?) the Del Mar racetrack is full of 4 legged refugees, Qualcomm Charger's stadium is at capacity with 10,000 evacuees. The fires to the north and east are encroaching upon coastal san diego. The firest to the south and east are moving into Chula Vista. If the uptown neighborhoods have to evacuate I'll have nowhere to go except the beach. I'll have to find a bunk out on the Midway Battleship in the harbor. The destruction is adding up to tens of thousands of acres. It's such a surreal thing to know that less than 45 minutes away people are losing their homes and spending the night in shelters while here in Hillcrest all are going about their nightly errands: walking dogs, grocery shopping, stopping at the car-wash, etc. It's an uneven state of emergency.

The best part about going home...

Mom's Breakfast - the best!

study on closeness