zaca-fire.jpg
I went to my post office box today, which is about a half mile from our house in Santa Barbara, and was greeted with the above sight as I got out of the car. You may have read about the Zaca fire burning in Santa Barbara County or seen it in the news. Well, there it was staring me in the face, and it didn’t do a lot for my sense of well being. Although we are being told that it’s doubtful that the fire will actually make it to our neighborhood, the authorities have set up a command center and are developing evacuation plans.
The kids and grandkids just left after being here for 10 days, I’ve got all-day meetings for the next couple of days, and now I’ve got this fire to worry about. All these distractions have made blogging and answering comments difficult. I’ll try my best to stay ahead of it and will get all the comments (of which there are a zillion) that have stacked up dealt with and posted as soon as I can.
Thanks for bearing with me.

10 Comments

  1. You guys stay safe!
    We’re trying, but this fire just seems to be running wild. Right now it’s about 44 percent contained.

  2. Wow…that’s scary. Looks like a mushroom cloud, almost.
    Luckily, all of our fires here in Georgia are limited to south of the metro area. 🙂
    I hope all goes well, and going by the picture, it would have to be one strong fire to get over that mountain. (That’s what it is, right?)
    Hi Lyndsey–
    I’m hoping it doesn’t make it over that mountain because I live right under it.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  3. Looks scary!
    Come back to Edinburgh – no forest fires would survive the rain here……
    It’s a thought. If this keeps on I may be on the next boat.
    MRE

  4. Maybe it will help a bit to pen a few good words about where you live? Every area in the country has its unique environmental risks ( tornados where I live ). I assume you and MD could live anywhere you wanted to. How did you settle on Santa Barbara?
    Hi John–
    If you want a quick look-see, paste the address below into your browser and take a look at the pictures that float up onto your screen.
    http://www.sbestatehomes.com/
    BTW, I have no affiliation with this realtor – in fact, I don’t even know him. I ran across his site once while looking for some property, and remembered that it had all these cool photos.
    Santa Barbara is one of the few true Mediterranean climates in the country. The temperature is always mild – never too hot in the summer and never too cold in the winter. In the dead of winter it’s cool enough to have a fire at night yet warm enough to play golf without a sweater during the day. It’s not too dry – Santa Fe and Boulder are both brutally dry – yet not too humid. The humidity doesn’t feel like humidity in other places – the South, for example – because the weather is so temperate. Santa Barbara has its own little micro climate allowing it to grow both the palm trees and tropical plants that abound along with the oak forests that are all over the place. One golf course I play has palm trees and tropical greenery all over it; the other has large, ancient oak trees and looks completely different even though it’s only a couple of miles from the other.
    SB has plenty of culture – although I’ve been disappointed in the SB Opera (Opera has to be really, really good for me to go see it), plenty of great wineries, it’s only 11/2 hours from LA, a few hours from San Fran, has the beach, the mountains, friendly people, great scenery, polo, wonderful restaurants…the list goes on and on.
    Hope this gives you an idea why we spend time here.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  5. What would that view look like at night? Could you actually see the reflected glow of the fires below the clouds and smoke?
    Hi Bob–
    I haven’t been able to see the glow of the fire at night, for which I’m glad because that means it hasn’t gotten that far up the mountain on the other side. If you drive on the other side, though, you can see a pretty fearsome blaze in broad daylight.
    MRE

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *