I am happy to be a block from the Pacific Ocean. It’s fire season again, and even though the big one to the northeast is hundreds of miles away, the smoke arrived today.
Yet the winds are blowing and the threat is here as well. The power was cut to parts of Santa Cruz, east of Mission Street. Amazing to see dead traffic lights on Pacific Coast Highway on a Sunday. We handled it well.
I remember these winds (called the Santa Ana’s in Southern California) from the 1980’s when I was living in LA’s San Fernando Valley. I was hiking at a place called Rocky Point right at the eastern end of Topanga Canyon Road and the 118 Freeway.
A wide band of flames appeared atop the Santa Susana Mountains and jumped the brand new 118 Freeway. I helped a frantic woman get her horses to safety. The next day I returned, the ranch was burned to the ground.
Yet today, for 99% of Californians, it’s just another day.
