Along the safe east-west route, the traffic is thicker than usual; the sky, normally blue and benevolent, is a faint pumpkin hue, a sheet of stress over the worried drivers. They say the fres may reach the coast before this is all over, and already 250,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. There are four active fronts where homes are being lost. The north-bound freeway has been closed over a seventeen-mile stretch and the warm, dry Santa Ana winds are herding the flames even further west, toward the coast, toward our home, if things do not change.

We are home, instead of at work, listening to the endless discussions about the major fires in Los Angeles, and on down the coast to our area.

The Governor is coming to town in response to the emergency, and the children suppose this is a very exciting thing. They cannot wait to see him, not for any political or social reasons but because they remember him as a movie actor.