Today marks the 126th anniversary of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. This past week in California it felt like the end of the world was near. The Santa Ana condition, the wind, the fires, the ugly brown and red skies, and the general panic of people not knowing if they would come back to their homes just made this last week pretty miserable around here.
If I could stay inside I did. Of all the weather we have through the year the Santa Ana condition is the one I really have a problem with. I always get sick through it and lack the energy to do very much. Fortunately, I guess you could say, I got sick about three weeks ago, but have had a cough every since. It could be a lot worse.
Say what you will about California, but when trouble happens the average citizen will drop everything to help others. Our fire fighters are doing a good job in all of this.
On Monday I came down Cajon Pass and that was my first encounter with the fires. There were embers all along the mountain sides that a few hours earlier must have been torching the area. The smokey sky felt like I had entered the apocalypse. I was just glad I was not heading to Riverside since they were dead stopped on the freeway compared to the snail pace I was on.
Today I was actually glad to see some blue sky. Things seemed to have cooled off so I hope we are on the way out of this situation for this year.
I tried to clean up some things in this blog today. I added a few links and edited a few older entries. I will do more in the next few days.
I will do another entry or two in the next few days. Unfortunately, there will not be any Halloween related hikes or sites this year like I tried to do last year. I usually like to do something like that this time of year, but the whole fire situation ruined that idea. Some of the areas I had in mind for this year are too close to burned areas. One video I recently did I was going to wait until November to put up, but I might as well put it up this weekend. Stay tuned...
edit: as of 10/27 it was actually raining for a few moments during the day. It is cool now so that should make the fire situation turn real quick. Typical California weather. One week scorching and then the next week cold temps.
