I think I can, I think I can!

Not even the sun can make it through the smoke.

Here is our sunrise view this morning. What you see off over the mountain (a northeast view - towards the Santiago fire) is the sunrise trying to get through all the smoke cloud cover compliments of the Camp Pendleton fires. These fires popped up yesterday (I posted pictures below yesterday) and it has really grown, shutting down any evac route to San Diego. The only way for us to go if we had to, is north.... Thank goodness one of the fires in Pendleton is 100% fully contained and the other one is about 20% contained (I think). This fire is only about 3-4 miled from us via road travel to give you perspective on how close we are located to it!

The Santiago Canyon Modjesko Canyon fire is about 12-15 miles the way the crow flies from us.

Here is the sunrise pic from our master bedroom window. All the gray above the light is actually smoke cover - the light is where the smoke cover ends and you can see that somewhere above all the darkness that there really is a sun shining down from the heavens. The light you see is about 2 miles away to the northeast of us:

It is very hard to breathe here today. The smell is part campfire, part burning trash, and very much smokey. The view from what is normally a VERY clean area of the country, we don't get much smog or bad air quality on the coast, is hazy and the skies are almost chocolate milk in color, especially out over the ocean. It is really bizarre looking. It is also hot, we are having record temps here, the Santa Ana winds are dying down but we still have moderate winds nonetheless and everything is covered in ash and dirt. There is ash falling all around us and the kids are forced to remain indoors throughout their school day. You hear people on the news saying that it looks like a war zone, they are right, regarless of whether you are in an area that has burned or outside it.

I see that the Governor is going to El Toro High School today to meet with the displaced residents. It is sad to think that just this past weekend - 3 days ago, Fri-Sun, that Xander spent the entire weekend in their pool playing in a water polo tournament (which they won - they beat the home hosting team, SET, yeah!!). And in just one day, things turned on a dime and now it is evacuation central.

We have several fire fighter friends on the front lines or in support roles helping the cities with their everyday emergencies that are still happening as well. Please say a prayer for them all. We feel very fortunate because even with our small inconveniences, if this is the worst that happens to us, we should all be thankful. Please pray for those that are faced with rebuilding their lives, they need all the help they can get!