Air, and What's What?

This morning we have a bit of cloudiness and fog. It's cool and nice.

National news reports are focusing on poor air quality. The outlying areas, where the fire still smolders, are still dealing with this. For us, yesterday evening was the first time we've opened the windows all week.

At 2 p.m., the sun was bright and the sky was blue, with just the faintest light-orange haze in the distance. No smell of smoke, and a pleasant breeze came in from the ocean. It was a very nice, typical 70-degree October day for us.

Now insurance companies are running full-page ads--claims information salted with sympathy. Macy's is giving disaster victims 15% off everything they carry, as well as 90 days of free credit.

Friends of the County Animal Shelter (FOCAS) is calling for volunteers to help deal with lost pets and other issues in affected areas. Merrie has been involved with FOCAS for years and may help with this.

One of the major sidebar stories from the fires is what people take with them when they evacuate. Beyond themselves and their pets, almost always people seem to take photos and mementoes. Video from the evacuation centers showed that some people, with more time to prepare, took a lot from their homes when they left.

For those of us not facing evacuation in five or ten minutes, this is a constructive life exercise. It's forced priority-setting. What's most important to me? Really. As in everything other than what you gather in the next ten minutes may shortly be gone.

We were never advised or ordered to evacuate, for which we are grateful. But we still thought about what to take. Merrie pulled boxes of photos from our closet. We gathered some documents, medications and a change of clothes. Then what?

The computers. Most of our files and work is on them, and backed up to the internet.

I found myself standing in front of my records, and I started pulling a few out. The originals of some Miles Davis and Duke Ellington: "Kind of Blue," "Indigos," "1940 Fargo." "Sgt. Pepper" (of course), "Cheap Thrills," "Hejira," Michelangeli's Beethoven's First, the Callas 1958 Traviata, some Frank Sinatra, Donovan's Greatest Hits.

I had to stop. Too much. I could imagine my arms getting tired.