Lot For Sale...

...comes with fireplace. 

The first firestorm we lived through was the Berkeley/Oakland Hills fire in 1991. We watched houses burn down in the hills above us all day. The next day we went up to look around and there was literally nothing left except a lot of fireplaces. They were all torn down when the lots were cleared. It was quite surreal,  so this fireplace standing alone in the middle of an open field has always attracted my attention. I imagine the house it came with burned in the Tubbs Fire in 2017 although it no longer looks like a burned homesite. Every time we drive by, I can't help speculating  about what happened here. And what will happen to this rather nice stone fireplace if the lot is sold....

The weather is strange today...quite warm but almost completely overcast and therefore very humid. Our heat pump is doing a good job or regulating the humidity inside the house.

I had a nice conversation with Matt who called before he leaves on a business trip to Tokyo, Bangkok, Taiwan, China and the Phillippines. 
He's Senior Vice President in charge of Product design and research and development at Rawlings and Easton at Rawlings Sporting Goods. Quite a mouthful and I had to Google him to find out what his actual position position is called. He was always a bit vague about his 'official ' title. Basically he designs baseball bats and goes to sales meetings. He was offered the job of CEO but he turned it down because he didn't want to live in St Louis, so he divides his time between St Louis and Los Angeles. I don't know how he does it, but he doesn't complain.

Otherwise, it's been a pretty quiet day. I still have to decide what to do with all the bags of clothing currently in the garage, but people have expressed interest in seeing what's in them, so they may just stay where they are for awhile. It surprised me that Matt was quite adamant that there was a a lot of 'nice stuff' there and I shouldn't just give it to the charity shop. Of our three children he is the most like me so maybe he just knows by intuition what's in all those grocery bags. As long as they're down there it will feel a little like I've just moved things from one place to another....