Childhood Magic

We've all felt it. The childish excitement. The wonder. The desperate hoping. We wake up in the morning, throw the covers off, pray a silent prayer, and run to the window. Is it there? Has it come? We peer outside to see the rooftops covered in white. The ground has been frosted with a sparkling blanket, and tiny little flakes flutter magically from the sky. They pile neatly along the edges of our window, and if we look very closely, we can see the detail of a tiny flake that has just landed. The dirty old world of yesterday has been transformed in to a stunning land of white. And then it hits us. It's happened! It's actually happened! The moment we've been waiting for has arrived! We run out of our rooms, shouting the joyful proclamation to anyone who can hear. "It's snowing! It's snowing!"

Beyond the constraints of time, this feeling of expectation and excitement has remained the same in children throughout our country - and perhaps even the world. And it's no different for my children today. As I tucked my little ones into bed on Sunday night, their final thoughts were full of anticipation for the next morning. Will the Glorious Change take place as they slumber? What magic will greet them when they awake? As soon as the clocks in their bedrooms change from 5:59 to 6:00 they know they can finally get out of bed. They run to their windows and look outside. It's here! It's come! Sweet elation! I hear the sound of my children running to my room, as I snuggle deeper beneath my warm blankets. And then I hear the rejoicing of my children. "Mommy! Daddy! It's raining!" I'm suddenly awakened to the stark contrast of my childhood versus my children's.




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update #1

Chris went out and bought an antena for our TV last night, so we could get one grainy news channel. The fire is burning mainly in Montecito, which is where a lot of famous people live on large estates. When we were watching last night, the footage of the burning buildings, the houses were enormous! If you feel like doing some celebrity sightings, you might want to go check out the local evac. center. --maybe i should go check it out & see if my good friend, Kenny Loggins is there. ;~)

They had a few helicopters dumping water on the fires through the night, using infrared goggles. Now that daylight is here, there are all sorts of helicpters flying around.

waking up this morning to the news, we heard that Westmont (chris' alma mater) lost about 8 buildings, including some student housing, and 12 faculty houses. 2,500 acres have burned and over 100 homes have been lost. The yard where chris' company keeps all of their equipment has been put on evacuation alert. Before we went to sleep last night, we set out a few things that we would want to grab quickly, just in case we had to evacuate. So far the fire has stayed a safe distance from us. It would have to go through downtown S.B. before it got to us. It's just hard to feel 100% safe, since the winds are so crazy.

If you'd like to hear more, Fox News has a good article w/photos. it's pretty sad when the national news gives you better coverage than the local news! - but seriously, i think that's just because all the local news is just trying to tell everyone the wheres & whens of evacuations & school closures. Our schools don't close for snow days, they close for fire!

This should be an interesting weekend!

As a side-note, the local radio station just mocked the national headlines: "We're being reffered to as a 'wealthy enclave.' For those of you going to work this morning, struggling to make your mortgage payment, you can be comforted with the fact that you live in a 'wealthy enclave.'" :)

another wildfire...

Just thought you'd all like to know that we have a HUGE wildfire burning here in the mountains just above town. It started about four hours ago & is growing like crazy. We have really strong hot winds that are blowing down the mountain - sometimes at 75 miles/hour. It's making this fire spread really quickly. I heard one news source estimate well over 60 structures that he saw burning. It also sounds like the local college (which chris attended) has lost several buildings. All of the students are currently locked in the fire-proof gym. It's hard to tell what exactly is happening, because the fire is so huge & moving so rapidly, that it doesn't sound like anyone has any exact news. The people on the radio just said 20,000 homes are w/o electricity, and 400 acres burned. The firefighters aren't giving any estimations as to how much is contained, because it's completely out of control.

We don't have TV here, so we're keeping up with the news w/our local radio station, and KEYT, live video feed from KSBY and one more.

oh what a night

As some of you already know, Santa Barbara doesn't have seasons like the rest of the world. Ours are quite different. Here, we have Flood, Fog, Fire, and Fiesta. At this moment, we're enjoying the lovely Fire season. You may remember a post from right around this time last year. We had a huge fire that lasted *forever* and dumped tons of ash all over our house. It was so bad on some days, that the kids couldn't go outside. This was by far, the worst case of ash I've ever seen in the area. We've only just gotten free of the effects w/in the last few months. Finally! no more ash all over the back porch!

...until now. Now we have another fire. Last year, the fire was behind the mountains of Santa Barbara. We could see the smoke & ash, but it was highly unlikely that it would actually reach the main city homes, etc. This time, it's on our side of the mountains.


Last night, we had a sitter come over so Chris & I could have a little time alone before people come over. Our sitter's family rents a house from us a few miles north, in Goleta, just at the foot of the mountains. She told us that she and her family have packed up a bunch of their things, just in case they have to evacuate. I started to think, "wow. that would be so sad to have your house burn down." & then it occurred to me: "Wait a second... that's *our* house!!"


Anyway... for our date, chris & i went to a restaurant in Goleta for Dinner. Shortly after getting our drinks, the power went out. While we were waiting for the lights to come back on, the man at the table next to us said it was out all the way down to Carpinteria. (to see a map of our area & where the fire is, click here.) So we left, & drove about 45 minutes south to Ventura, where we had dinner at a fast food place, and then went to a movie (Hancock). Just as the previews were playing, our sitter called & asked us to come home. She was sitting in our house, in the dark (the power was still off), watching the hillside burn from our window. She was anxious that her family would be evacuated, & she wouldn't know what was going on. So we left the movie & went home.

After she left, we lit a million candles, watched the fire burn for a few minutes, then went to bed (i was exhausted, since i had been up with Evy til 2:30am the night before) . Around 2 or 3 in the morning, the electricity came back on --and all the lights & radios that had been on in the evening came back on. Before I woke up, Evelyn (who's 2) got up, made herself breakfast (dumping half the cereal on the floor), let Shasta out of her crate & tried to feed the dog by dumping all of her treats on the floor. The dog, who wasn't let outside, promptly peed on the carpet. *sigh*


And now begins a new day with an eerie orange sun and great flakes of ash falling from the sky.