Where have I been? Oh, who cares. Work, that's where. WORK. Yesterday was hot and busy, through and through. Got home after the sun went down, and almost sat to blog about it in one big, extended complaint, and then thought the better of it. I mean, who wants to hear about that?

Monday I have no excuse for. I was home for most of the day. I had a bit of time here and there, but I just didn't sit down at the computer. I was just eager to get August over and done with, as it seemed an interminable month, so I waited it out until the first September morning, which was Tuesday. And now? SEPTEMBER! And feeling great.

Here's a few more fire photos to remind you how petty your Wednesday worries are...


La Canada. I believe Larry took this pic with his phone from his helicopter last Friday night. That collection of buildings on the right, there, is JPL -NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It's the #3 Mission Control for spaceflight ops in the country, behind the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the Johnson Space Center in Houston. JPL handles all of the deep space exploration, so the shuttle astronauts are a little less concerned about the La Canada fires than are the robots on Mars.

The dome in the bottom left is my old high school gym, currently an evac center, and my old house is in that cluster of homes on the top left on that hill.

Here's one taken by Mitch a couple days ago, from his backyard...


A DC-10 flying that low over your house would otherwise not be cause for jubilance, but Mitch called it "The Closer" -as it pretty much finished off the flames licking up his hillside.

And finally...



The breathtaking, stunning, God's-eye view of it all, that we see in the paper once a year. Seems understated, since it's been deemed one of the largest wildfires (if not the largest) in California history. If the Santa Ana's were blowing, all that smoke would be going in exactly the opposite direction. So far, only 64 homes have burned down. I say "only" because I'm working around San Diego County and still see empty lots in many neighborhoods, and I vividly remember all the homes that burned down two years ago. All 1500 of them.


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