Fire Watch

Last night, I called J and told me I didn't want to be alone with the fire on the hillside. He suggested we go for pizza. I agreed. After pizza Oggie's J grabbed his binoculars and I grabbed a couple bottles of beer. We headed up the hill to watch the spectacular fire storm on the hillside. We speculated the distance, me--worst case scenario girl--said it was about 5 miles, he, more accurately guessed 10 miles. Nevertheless, the conflagation awed up for upwards to three hours. We traded the binoculars like a joint back and forth. Most of the commentary consisted of OH. MY. GOD; Wow; Holy Mother of Jesus; You have to see this; Look to the right, left, middle of the ridge V; It's really flaring up. Through the evening the wind died down some and pushed the smoke over into the San Fernando Valley. We watched long enough for us to engage in a rather surreal but typically LA conversation. I paused in my fire watching to tell J that I am thinking about hair extenstions. I remarked that it took a couple of hours and a couple of hundred dollars. He became completely distracted from the flames jumping on the hillside to question my sanity. We continued to watch and we watched long enough for me to become comfortable with the idea that if I went to sleep, I would not wake up to loud speakers telling me to evacuate.
In the a.m., I woke up to call my worried mother who answered on the first ring. I explained I made it though the night and checked out the ridge line before reporting in. In the early dawn, the otherside of the ridge glowed. Later with coffee in hand, I ran into J on the hill. We watched a most amazing conflagaration flare up with flames that must have reached 30-40 feet high and was at least 40-50 long. Amazingly the air quality was still suprisingly good, only becuase the winds decided to spare the Santa Clarita Valley. We watched for a while, I went off to Valencia and J had an unexpected day off. LA is still burning, people are losing their homes right and left, but it seems for now, I am safe.