Cleaning up the ashes

It has been a crazy week and although I have numerous family and friends who have been affected by the fires, I have not known anyone personally that lost their home. All of my family have been allowed to return home and although there is major cleaning to do, they are all okay.

I was able to go to my SNB on Wednesday night even with the smokey air. Suzanne, Anna, Chris, Robin and I all met in front of a closed Coffee Bean and to quote Suzanne, "wiped the ashes off of the outdoor furniture, and enjoyed the company". Chris brought us some Halloween cupcakes and brought me some excellent beef stew with rice. It was the first decent thing I had eaten in two days. We all laughed about how when we all thought of things to evacuate, yarn was in the top. It may not be the most valuable thing but it is one of the most cherished. It felt really good to be sitting there after the couple of stressful days and to be among friends.

I've been stuck inside the house for a couple of days because of the air quality and am just now starting to venture outside. So what did I do while I was stuck inside? A lot of spring (fall?) cleaning. I took a look at everything I had left in my closet, after taking out all of the stuff I wouldn't want to burn, and decided it was time to get rid of some things. I now have 4 trash bags full of clothes that no longer are of use to me/my husband/my sons and it has felt really good to have some room between the clothes hanging in the closets.

I also took pictures of some of the stash to confess on Ravelry. I've got to upload the pics to Flickr and post still, but I'm taking it one step at a time. Ravelry really does take up a lot of knitting time. It's so fun though!

Fire Knitting

I know I sure am ready for knitting night. If the Coffee Bean is even open tomorrow.

San Diego is on fire but my family is doing well. We got the reverse 911 call yesterday to voluntarily evacuate so we did. We stayed at our family's house in Encinitas. Then went home about 7 pm after the evacuation was lifted. My family in Poway was able to go home last night around 9:30 and everyone seems to be in the clear, except for one family member in Escondido. He's still on watch.

I had a lot of time and space in the car so after packing the important papers, computer, and pictures so I thought it wouldn't be bad to put a little yarn in there. I was amazed at how much yarn could fit in the nooks and crannies of my car. I got all of my needles and sock yarn, then got all of the expensive stuff in. Then I decided I wouldn't want to have to replace my books, so I put them in our truck. I guess I wouldn't have grabbed that stuff if I didn't have a lot of time, but I got the warning at about 5 am and didn't get the official call until about 1 pm. That's a lot of time for nervous and tense packing.

I learned something about what type of knitter I am. I cannot knit when I am that tense. It would have probably been a good idea to focus on something else, but I just couldn't get my hands to work. I was so worried about my family and friends in Poway (that's where I grew up) and not fully understanding what the fire in San Marcos was doing, that I couldn't knit very well. My nickname will never be Fire Knitter. I was able to knit a few stitches today though. :)

We are still at home, still watching the fires around the clock on tv. School has been canceled for the remainder of the week for son #1 and so has the Halloween Carnival that was supposed to take place on Saturday. Soccer games are also canceled, as well as any outside activities. It's going to be interesting trying to keep the kids entertained inside until the air quality gets better. They've already developed a cough in reaction to the ashy air and being outside for any length of time makes my head hurt.

We now have family evacuated from Valley Center and they are awaiting word to when the will be able to return home.



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