WHAT THE FREAK?????

WHO STARTED THIS FIRE WHILE WE WERE AWAY?
i left my daughter brooke and "carlos" in charge of the house and dog and cat.
last night we when landed in JFK, i called her to tell her we were coming in at about 10 p.m..
"how's everything brooke?"
"oh momma, are you still planning on coming home tonight?"
i was afraid of this question....and i knew the question very well....i have raised a few kids through their teenage years and i myself went through it. i always hoped my parents would come home a day or two later than planned so that i could "clear out and clean up".

"what do you mean brooke?"
"momma, i think you ought to stay away from san diego for at least three days if you can...."
three days?!?!
still not knowing the news....holy shit, what happened now??? i asked, "uhm, brooke, what did you do? is something wrong? damn it, you have to tell me what happened." (i have to admit that i forget how old my children are all the time, i think they are all about jr. age. sorry brookie.)
my brookie has been working as a major news reporter now for over 10 years - i still haven't gotten used to the idea.
"momma, don't you know that san diego is on fire?"
"WHAT?!!!? OH, GOD, brooke, did you leave the stove on?" i envision this happening to myself all the time.

no, momma, .....and then she rattled off all the incomprehensably awful news...."worse than the cedar fires," i heard her say. "the fire deptartment is scared..." "evacuations in escondido (holy crap my studio, i had an instant flash of all my paintings now ash)...."the enitre town of ramona...." NO, not my friend in ramona!!!!! and i began to think about the horses and livestock too and everything that was a horror 4 years ago, now back in full.
when i got off the phone, my husband and rosie didn't really believe me. why? because it is hard to believe.

i called kathy.....she was wearing a mask, she said. for some reason this first bit of news made me giddy.....but i quickly pulled myself together, as it is a very serious matter. kathy lives in chula vista, there was a nasty fire raging in her area....she told me that people were told to hunker down and wait for instructions. i asked her what she was doing....she said she was eating at chilis, then going to costco!!!! that's my friend kathy, nothing stops her. another time i giggled...but was nudged sharply by my daughter who thought it couldn't possibly be funny. she was rioght.
anyway, kathy told me what i wanted to know, should we come home? she said yes, by all means, because we needed to look after our home. hmmm, i got scared.

as we flew in from LA at night, we could see it from the air. everyone had their noses pressed to their windows. wiggly worms and rings of fire. no one could speak, exactly, only in hushed somber tones.
once home, we looked around. our house is safe, lots of ash everywhere and our umbrellas are in the pool. lots of wind damage, ripped our screens off, etc.

but we are HOME.

but i am uneasy today, i want to hear from my ramona friends to be sure things are OK. SO RaMONA if you are out there, please give me a holler.