Waiting

After only one good night's sleep in the last three, the adrenaline is wearing off. We are all sitting around staring at our phones, checking on friends and neighbors and letting our families know that we're still ok.

We are learning more about wildland fires than we ever wanted to know...wind direction, when the 747s can drop flame retardant and why heavy smoke is a good thing because it means the wind isn't blowing and the smoke is settling.

I know the map of the city better than I ever did from obsessively studying evacuation maps, calfire maps and pictures of burned out suburbs that look like war zones, flames still rising from open gas mains, nothing left standing but fireplaces and chimneys.

Every hotel from here to San Francisco is full. There are evacuation centers everywhere. People at the county fairground , are caring for pets and livestock from the affected areas. There are thousands and thousands of evacuees and families with nothing but the clothes in their backs. It is heartbreaking.

I walked out into the vineyard in front of the house where we are staying and found it full of large pieces of burned paper, cloth, or building materials, once someone's morning newspaper, part of their house or perhaps their curtains. There are blackened leaves everywhere. Many landmarks and schools, businesses and medical buildings have burned to the ground, including our beloved Willi's Wine Bar. Schools are closed, mail is not being delivered and we continue to wait ....