Come On Baby Light My Fire

My friends in Malibu lost their home about ten years ago in one of LA's Santa Ana wind fires. They had great insurance so they rebuilt from the ground up.  The new house is steel and glass with poured cement flooring. They went from rustic mountain retreat to uber-techno modern.  With this week's fire now climbing up the hill just down the road, that may have been a good idea.

There are five fire trucks on their street. Most people have left the area. My girlfriend finally left yesterday. Her hubba bubba is sticking it out so far.

The firefighters have been living in the neighborhood for the last few days. I saw a reporter on the evening news with a bunch of them struggling with broken hoses on a hill above the Pacific Coast Highway. The view looked familiar. Turns out they were about half a mile from my friends. I guess the LA Times interviewed my girlfriend yesterday. CNN saw the story and now they're interviewing her husband today. They wanted to talk to her, but she'd left for her mom's. The possibility of one family losing two homes to fire in the span of ten years was just too good for the media to pass up.

Hubba Bubba's car is packed, but he's been sticking around untiil he absolutely has to leave. Once you go you're not allowed back.

As of yesterday their house is the only one with phone and internet service still. So their living room has become command central, because that single phone line is the only connection the firefighters have with their commanders. Before my girlfriend left and food ran low, she was making breakfasts for the firefighters. I guess a bunch of them are sleeping in the garage and taking showers after their shifts are over. I'd like to be a towel on those bathroom racks.

They promise to tell her husband when it's absolutely no kidding you gotta get out of here now time to leave. Or he can stay in the house with them until the flames go by. I guess they think the steel and glass can withstand the blaze if the wind changes direction and they're suddenly in the line of fire, as it were.

After the fires there are usually mudslides and/or earthquakes. It's a small price to pay for having mountains in your backyard and the Pacific Ocean out front.

Me?  I like knowing that my grass and trees can't go up in flames and take my house too. And when it rains my house won't slide into a canyon on a river of mud. Not to mention getting shaken, not stirred, in an earthquake.

Weather isn't my problem. Wellness checks are.