Wow, look how consistant I am with when I update. Anyway, crashing out now. Still sick.. But classes resume tomorrow so I have to get up early. I did pretty good today getting up in time for church. I managed to play with Witness during 2nd service as scheduled, but was pretty dead afterward. I had to skip going to the symphony because I would have disrupted the whole thing, even with a large supply of cough drops.

I will be very glad when I can get rid of this stupid cold. At any rate.. 'Tis time for NyQuil and bed.

There's one good thing about this dumb cold.. It's getting me used to going to bed at more decent hours of the night..

So I still have a cold. I took NyQuil a few minutes ago so I'm pretty loopy right now.. So I'll make this short.

My mom and I went to the zoo. We had a really good time. It was cloudy and damp out. Very awesome.

I'm going to be re-designing my website sooner rather than later this time. I will be keeping the blog up even once the fires are over. I've long thought about making my website a blog, but never really followed through on it. I won't post every day now that things on the fire front have calmed down I don't think.. But I will post on a regular basis just to keep everyone updated on my crazy busy life.

Okay, I'm going to crash now. I'm on tomorrow at church with Witness so I need rest.

I actually got out of my house this evening. I went over and hung out with my Padawan for a little while so her parents could go out for the evening. Things are starting to normalize around here. All evac orders from my corner of town are lifted.. As are most of the evac orders in San Diego period.

I also saw the most beautiful thing today - blue sky!

The fires aren't out yet, but the percent contained gets higher with every major update from the county. I still have a cold, but I'm starting to feel a little better. I never get days on end like this to sleep and rest when I'm ill. I don't like the circumstances that let me rest.. But I am glad I've been able to rest at *home.*

My parents and I are going to the Zoo tomorrow for a couple of hours just to get out of the house and do something fun together since this week has been marked by major disaster and illness. It's time to relax a little..

Nothing new to report here tonight. Things in San Diego are starting to normalize in many areas. They've been lettting a lot of people repopulate a good portion of the city thoughout today. I've spent most of the day sleeping off and on due to my evil cold that I caught.

We've been asked to conserve power. The power grids across town have been taxed due to a lot of power lines having gone down throughout all of this. With the repopulation of the last few days, they're worried about power going out on more people.

I'm about to head to bed right now. Pretty tired still from my cold. More tomorrow.

So, nothing really has changed since my update earlier today. I still really do not feel well from my cold, so I'm about to head to bed. The fire situation at my house is still the same.

It is a relief, though, not seeing any flames or orange glow tonight. The offshore winds have shifted the Harris fire is a bit different direction. Jamul remains the area of focus for that fire.

More tomorrow morning, or if anything changes.

Sorry for the long delay in updates. I was battling a cold last week that seemed to have abated over the weekend.. But with the air quality, massive sleep deprivation, and air quality of the last several days it returned en force and I've been sleeping off and on for most of today.

We're still okay at home. Not much has changed since last night. They're still waging a major war on the fire in Jamul, so I am keeping an eye on that. Steele Canyon HS is still standing thanks to the efforts of the firefighters last night. The fire did jump the 94 during the night and they're really working hard on that.

Winds have been shifting and in some areas it's proving to be a problem, but in other areas it's helping by pushing the fire back on itself. So, basically, things are calming by a little, but it's still quite unpredictable.

They announced a little while ago that 12 zip codes are without mail delivery still and the post offices in those areas are closed. My zip code, 91977, was the first one announced. So, Spring Valley is without mail. The current maps still show my street sitting a half-mile outside of that mandatory evac zone from the Harris fire.

As always, you know how to get in contact with me if need be.

The winds have died and are pretty much nil still.. The fire I could see from my back yard is also barely visible now at this point. They haven't said Spring Valley is all clear yet. I'm still hearing that if winds pick up we could be in trouble, so stay packed and ready to leave if need be.

We left our cars packed and everything so we can get out quick if things change. Steele Canyon HS is in danger, and spread from that angle of the fire is still an issue for us as well. The latest maps are showing that I'm about a half-mile on the good side of that evac zone right now. So, not clear yet.. But doing much better.

Things have calmed down enough that I'm actually going to attempt to get some sleep. I've barely slept at all in the last few days, and the sleep I have gotten has been anything but restful. I will update in the morning, provided things stay the way they are now.. Or, I will put up a quick update if things change at all during the night.

So far, I've been hearing encouraging things from several friends. Richard is still at home. Kristina is at home. Brendan and his family were able to go back home. I know I'm missing people, but I'm seriously that brain dead at the moment so it is time I see if I can sleep.

As always, you can reach me via email.. Texts on my cell phone are okay, as are calls on my landline.

Okay, I'll run this more like a blog now and just leave the previous updates on the screen. I'll go back and restore some of the earlier ones later probably. I have an archive of them. So, the situation right now is we're basically in a holding pattern. The winds that died at 5 am are still dead. News feed from Spring Valley says portions of eastern SV are still in the mandatory evac zone, which we're still on that edge perimeter I mentioned in the 12:50 pm update. The 6 pm maps show the same thing for my street that the 5:30 am ones did. We picked up our stuff from my mom's school a little while ago and then had dinner. We saw flame on the way home and she and I pulled over to take pictures. I then took some pictures from my back yard. The flames are nothing what they were last night. I have one picture from when we evaced last night that I'll put up and then some I took in almost the same spot on the way home this evening so the difference is striking. The difference in flame level from last night to right now is huge, and there aren't any winds whipping the fire along like there were last night so they're keeping it under control. So.. If the winds pick up we'll have to leave again. We're okay as long as these winds stay down..

I'm in the process of putting pictures up. They won't go in the normal gallery yet. I'm making a separate page for them. Newer pictures will be above older picutres.

Clear by a hair. The 5:30 am evac map that was released has the overlay of the Thomas Bros. map grid on it.
The tip of my street is just on the other side of the current mandatory evac perimiter.. So.. By a hair.
Some neighbors stayed last night and watched the blaze from their houses. Word on the news is the sudden drop of wind around 5 am is what saved this area. The winds were high and pushing the fire closer and closer to my house. The pictures they were showing of the blaze from last night are visible areas from my back yard.
By some miracle the winds died. This stopped the extremely rapid advance of the fire and is what saved this area for now.
The wind situation is much better.. Which means the air situation is worse. The dying down of the winds means the smoke and ash is lingering and staying and building up now.
They are still cautioning everyone not to be complacent as we're not out of Santa Ana conditions yet so we're supposed to stay alert and we're told even if we're not in a mandatory or voluntary evac zone to just go if we feel uncomfortable.
Stuff is still over at my mom's school site as we did not know if we'd have to leave again. If conditions stay as they are now, we'll go pick our stuff up in a few hours. It's not over yet, though.. And the fire is still a little too close for my comfort.
There is a lot of aircraft up around me right now making drops on the fire, though.
Again.. Will update as things change.