Sheltering in Place

[Drunk Monk]

There's a plume in mountains behind the lower east bay that looked like a mushroom cloud from los gatos when I got off hwy17.

[cranefly]

It's after 11 and still too hot, so all our windows are wide open.

There's a noticeable smell of smoke.

[Drunk Monk]

same here.

like i said...
...a little taste of hell

at least i know that if i can still smell the brimstone, i probably don't have covid.

---

Day 148: Finish a memoriam for Dr. Wu, some shopping for my mom, still chipping on that Den piece, get water, attending an NCCAOM webinar on BLM issues for FBU, plus should do something for FBU. 

Still hot. Still smoky. I don't mind the swelter but i'd rather be at some music festival for it than here in the suburbs.

[King Bob]

We lost power last night from about 7-12. Not a scheduled blackout. Today going to buy some emergency supplies: a couple of lanterns, a power bank and a battery powered fan.

So smoky here that it's overcast. A real Mordor feel.

[Drunk Monk]

The two major fires near the Cruz are the Warrenella and the Waddell. The Waddell Creek Trail to Berry Falls is one of our favorite Big Basin trails. We hiked it at the beginning of the pandemic. I wonder if it's all ash now. 

The Cruz has been given orders to be on stand by for evacuation. Bonny Doon and Davenport have evacuated. Many are sheltering in the Santa Cruz Civic, where we went for the symphony. UCSC is on high alert. 

At the dog park today, Stacy talked to someone whose friend was alerted by helicopter and given 3 minutes to evacuate. 

Fuck 2020.

---

Now they are evacuating up to the city limit. I know several people that must be on the move.

Fuck I'll never finish this damn article.

[Drunk Monk]

The historic buildings at Big Basin like the Visitor Center are all gone. We last visited them over the holidays when Tara was up for winter break. There's a lovely old growth trail just outside the center. That must all be gone too now.

[Greg]

Ugg. Stay safe. Evacuation orders are nerve wracking. And yet, I still don't have my go bag ready.

[Drunk Monk]

Day 148: final polish on piece 2 of 4 for Den, jump back to FBU to get some stuff in place for my last week prior to my 3 month review, and watching the news and hope we don’t get evacuation orders.

[Greg]

Please don't get evacuation orders,

[cranefly]

Last night LCF came to bed heartbroken.  She told me Lick Observatory was gone.

This morning I've been checking the news about it.  From what I can tell the complex still stands up there, but in the middle of nothing.  But don't quote me on this marginally good news.

Meanwhile, we have friends living in a wilderness house just off Skyline.  Fires are an ever-present danger during dry months.  Right now the father and daughter are in Hawaii, where the daughter is just starting at university.  The father wanted to accompany her to help her get settled.  But quarantine rules have him trapped in a hotel; I forget for how long.

As for the mother, she's home alone.  Well, not entirely, as they have cats.

Yesterday she got evacuated.  She couldn't take the pets, but left out lots of food and water for them.

[Greg]

This is all too close to home. If any of you need a place to run to, I am still fire free.

[Drunk Monk]

Thanks Greg. We were talking last night about fleeing to somewhere not smoky, where we can breathe. But then, your county has high covid numbers, right? 

The exodus has begun. I've got several friends on the move now. Stacy's cousin has a house near Davis that was in the evac zone, just barely. She posted a 'marked safe' on facebook and she's not active there at all, just in it to lurk. Ti, a Lam Kwoon brother of the Cf's and mine, had to evac his parents last night. We were texting until he got the order. Two friends from my Kung Fu academy are moving or about to move. One is in Felton so she must have got orders. The other is in Soquel and is staged awaiting orders. Our neighbors across the street hitched up their trailer to their truck and are packing. 

The line is at UCSC right now. Everything north of that is shut down. There's a wall of smoke to the north.

I'm going to jam to get my work done today while we still have power.

[Greg]

I was thinking you would escape to S-Vale. That has to be better than where you are now. We have dark clouds overhead, but not too smokey.

We might have high Covid numbers, but I'm not near anyone.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Hopefully you won’t have to make that trip to S’Vale

[Drunk Monk]

This is all too close to home. If any of you need a place to run to, I am still fire free.

Dibs.

A side note: we got our Farm Fresh delivery last night. A lot of wildlife is on the run. Something, we're guessing a raccoon, got into our delivery and stole my Havarti. Feckin bandit panda stole my cheese. The cruelest cut so far...

Svale is not much better. We're debating options.