Our smoke filled view...

I don't have a lot of time to update but we promise to later this week about all the events over the last 2 weeks. Until then, here are some pictures of what we have been forced to deal with and what our outside views look like!

All the photos below are in the master bathroom. I know that sometimes I get behind on my cleaning however this was just the icing on the cake! This is what happens when you don't have A/C, it's hot outside and the Santa Ana winds are blowing ash, soot, dirt, silt and everything else into your open windows at night. You get to wake up and find EVERYTHING in your home looking like the counters and tub. Now, look around you in your own home and imagine how long it would take to vacuum and then deep clean all that surrounds you. Let's put it this way, we are still not done!

These pictures are views towards Camp Pendleton, just a couple miles south of us. The smoke clouds you see here are from the Las Pulgas and Basilone Road outbreaks. Fallbrook is about 20 miles south of Las Pulgas which seems like a lot except for the fact that Camp Pendleton is all dry grass with little trees or anything to stop the fire if it truly decided to more north. Thank goodness we seem to be in a pocket of protection, everything seems to be just north of us and just south of us - very little blue skies and horrible air quality but safe just the same.

This was taken in our neighborhood on a walking trail.

This view is looking out over the ocean that you can usually see under normal conditions. This is the haze we are seeing towards the south side.

The picture is at the cross section of my street below is looking due West (I live 2 doors down from here). From this vantage point on a clear day we can see Catalina Island with no problems. Here you can see that the sun is shining however very much obscured from view from the smoke clouds. Now also remember that this view is overlooking the ocean and the fires are directly north and directly south of us.

The view here is just turned in the opposite direction from the previous view. You are now looking at the moon and this view is due East. Again these are smoke clouds from the Pendleton and Fallbrook fires. I thought these clouds actually looked like flames themselves. I was leaving my neighborhood to take one of the boys in Xander's band home and had to turn around and come back for this photo. I could resist such a cool looking sky!

I know you can't tell it in the pictures above you would think we lived on a dirt road. Remember the picture of my bathtub? Multiply that about 100 fold and that's what our homes, streets and cars look like. Add water, instant mud!

XOXOXO
K&B