Record-Melting Fall Heat Wave Bakes Southern California

[Hekate]

22. Ironically, I used to have my plans all in place, but we moved this summer...

Aside from the inherent disorder of packing up 34 years of stuff, the geography is different. We moved to a small neighborhood tucked just behind some little hills. Through the gap in the hills we can see Ventura and the ocean, that close to us. Immediately outside our street is a crowded tract of houses -- nice, but crowded.

So now I am thinking about egress. Probably the best thing of all would be to get out of the neighborhood before the traffic jam. So I have to start mental inventory of what to grab, how to pack the cars, and how fast I can do that.

Note to self: When hubby settles down, we really need to replace the 1990 Camry wagon. My Honda sedan is the new car at age 11 years, but I would hate to trust my life to the Camry at this point.

As you can tell from the fact that we lived in our other house 34 years, we are no longer young. We both turned 70 this year, tho he is still working his job full time from home. The new house is, frankly, my dream home and I feel I am in the honeymoon phase of loving it. We bought it from a 90 year old couple who custom designed it 30 years ago, all on one level, with wide doors and hallways, built in bookshelves, woodwork ...sorry, I'll shut up. But the level of detail is staggering, and we never, ever could have done it ouselves.

What could we save? When I read some of the early stories about Santa Rosa in the LA Times, I admit I wept for those people, the living and the dead. Sometimes you just don't get a choice.