2025 Life Logs, Day 08: Catastrophic Fires in the Los Angeles Area
Date: Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Weather: Same, Same–Sunny, Windy, Cold; Temp 29, Low 19 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
It has been cold for days, but the wind today was brutal at times. Right now, it is 22 degrees outside, but WeatherUnderground says it feels like 7 degrees F. Brrrrr. But no complaints. It could be a lot worse.
I read about the fires in the Los Angeles area last night, but it was not until this morning that I realized just how catastrophic the situation really was. When I saw that it was not just the Pacific Palisades area, but that there were other fires that started during the night in different areas of Los Angeles (specifically in Pasadena). that I got concerned for my friends Kevin and Claire, Kevin’s mother, and his sister’s family. His mother lives in Pasadena, and his sister and family live close-by in Eagle Rock. I knew that Kevin and Claire had put their little motor home in storage in Pasadena while they flew to Toronto for the 80th birthday celebration for Claire’s mom, but I did not know when they were returning. So, I sent a text and Kevin called immediately. He said they returned to Pasadena and got the van out of storage yesterday. They were planning to leave for Mexico this morning, so they parked the van just outside where his mother lives. He said the winds were unbelievably strong last night and he had to carefully place the van in the hope that none of the very tall palm trees on the street fell on it overnight. When they got up this morning, the tallest tree in the neighborhood had fallen on another tree and a utility pole and that whole mess was blocking one end of the street. The entire area was smoky, and ash was falling all around. But they didn’t think they should head across to Arizona because there were reports of 70 mile an hour gusts in the desert. When we hung up, Kevin said they were getting his mom to pack a bag, and they would take her to his sister’s home. Then they would all go to a friend of his sister’s which was a little further away from the fires. I was hoping they would get his mother with his sister and then head out of town. But plans were changing even as we spoke. I heard from Claire at 7:30 tonight telling me they had decided to get away from the fires and cross the desert and that they were now in Phoenix. They used Windy (a weather app Mark and I used for ocean navigation) to time each leg of their trip to Phoenix to miss any dangers. And she said it certainly looked like they did miss dangers as they saw five to ten trucks blown over on their way. But now they are stuck in Phoenix for the night due to a freeze warning on the way to Nogales in Mexico, their next stop. As Claire said in her text, the drama never ends. But I will sleep more peacefully tonight knowing they are away from the fires. All of this made the stories about the fires today much more personal. I cannot imagine what it would be like to lose an entire town in 24 hours. It sounds like Pacific Palisades is simply burned to the ground. In 1975, Mark and I lived in Santa Monica for six weeks while he was producing a public television pilot program. We could walk over to a residential area of Pacific Palisades from where we lived and often did. And some of his filming was in Topanga Canyon. It makes me so sad to think about those beautiful areas being burned to a crisp. I guess the only thing we can do is hope those winds die down completely overnight, stopping the rapid spread of the fires. The last report I heard said the winds have died down enough that the helicopters can now be used to try and control the fires, but that the wind that is blowing tonight is blowing the fire toward Hollywood.
I had a hard time focusing today because I kept turning on the television to find out what was happening with the fires. But I did manage to start my chucky granola clusters experiment. I have been making granola since I lived in northern Minnesota in the mid to late 1970’s, but I have never wanted chunky granola. But a few days ago, Sam asked me if I could make some chunky granola that he could eat as treats. I did a little research and found three recipes I wanted to try. I made two of them today and will make the third tomorrow and then have a taste test. When I picked Ollie up after school today and told him about my experiment, he suggested that I adjust my recipe and try that as well. So, I might make a fourth option tomorrow as well.
