We just got the Gaelic Goddess off safely on a flight out of ashville to Dallas. She was thoroughly satisfied with her adventuresome weekend which included an elegant dinner amongst crazed artists, an evening or two of making music and swapping songs, a day gallivanting among beaches and tide-pools and a wonderful visit to the Zoo, and a hair-raising gallop amongst the madhouse motorists of Baja California and a tour thorugh several towns of northern Mexico, not to mention the thrill of breathing soot and ash for a night and wondering whether your whole group was going to be evacuated by flame and fire.

So she is well and happy, and will be landing in Dallas in a couple of hours and sends her regards to MCatters all.

The fires here in San Diego county seem to have stabilized but are not over by a good deal. The media spend so much time rerunning the worst bits of the last couple of days that it is hard to learn what the cirrent state of affairs is. But the crisis seems to be declining.

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