saltydog wrote:I see that as of Sunday 12/17, this fire is the 3rd largest wild fire in California with only 40% containment. Most of the hillside neighborhoods in Santa Barbara are under the evacuation order. Hope you and your family are safe, Billie!
Thank you, Salty. We faced evacuation twice. In the early days we were without electricity. It's been quite an education for my precious 15 year old niece that lives with us. The Santa Barbara school system cancelled 7 days of classes immediately before Christmas holiday. Gosh, I remember praying for snow days in NY state. A snow day is a lot less lethal than these fires. The air quality here is horrendous; as you may have heard.
The really fine news for the school kids is they probably will not have to make these lost days up. Heck, I remember when we exceeded our allowance of snow days east of the mighty Mississippi River, we had to make the days up. The most terrible aspect of this is that in some years it was on a Saturday!! Talk about blasphemy!!
P.S. I hope you've been surfing. I heard it's been good lately in your neck of the woods. Hmmm... shouldn't that be in your neck of the shore breaks?
before and after from 
