#EvacueeDiary VII In The Wind

Many of my neighbors now began an insurance company story, but I don't have one of those, my insurer performed to the letter of their contract within 6 weeks of the fire, and in February I had the first experience of missing a monthly visitor, the mortgage payment. That obligation had been discharged as my insurer discharged theirs. 

I drove out of Altadena in a Chevy HHR that gave me years of dedicated service without ever asking for anything but oil and gas. I was happy to drive to any school and park on the street without thinking about its security or if someone would hit and break my heart, but I didn't want to drive it anymore, it was always going to be the trip out of Altadena from now on, even if I had my favorite 2nd graders to guest teach. So, I began thinking and then searching for something I'd never had, a car bought using only my specifications. 

I let my mind race and I drove everything, and then I looked into what Hyundai was doing with its luxury models and Genesis label. I put the magnifying glass on the effort and liked what I saw, it was an S class Mercedes for 50K less, and had all the bells and whistles to make my tech mind swoon. I grabbed Sweetie and went down to Genesis of Pasadena looked around the showroom and liked what I saw. The units in there were sexy sleek and they looked unique, I liked them. I did not like the Black one they had in the showroom and I didn't want the G70 they also had, so the sales dude I had took me outside and showed me there G80's. She was right up front. Genesis does a good job with their paint schemes and she had a special grey paint job,so demure, finer than frog's hair. I took her for a drive, it was like she melted around me, and the first time I stepped on her twin turbo's I let off fast, I was going 60 before the sales dude's fear registered and he said whoa! I got back to the dealership and listened to the salesdude tell me about everything, but I was already sold, and I took her back to my Mom's house in LA and gave away the HHR on Facebook. 

Did you know that even after being married for 40 years, it's difficult to be be...married in your mom's house? After a disaster like Sweetie and I had just experienced, your desire to be married...increases, you want to be married like bunnies, I think something in the make up kicks into repopulate the earth mode after living through disaster and even though we're a bit past that age, the genes neither knew or cared, and since we had a new car we decided to use it, and here is where #evacueediary begins. It didn't begin in the fire, it begins now. 

Our first ride was to San Simeon, and then Laguna Beach, and then Carlsbad, and then back to Laguna Beach. Look I said bunnies right? and so it went through February and March until another reason I say my life is a continuous stream of miracles came to pass, my daughter had our 3rd grandson and now we had 3 ages 14, 12 and baby, and something started to form in my head I'd repeat many tines, to myself and to anyone who asked how I was after the fire, If God came to me and told me he would take all I owned and in return give me my new grandson I would feel guilty for defrauding God so quickly would I say deal, and that's exactly where I was. 

Sweetie and I then set our sights at Las Vegas for although we had taken 4 or 5 hops in our new car I had not had the chance to unleash her twin turbos or engage all of her modern drive by wire and by herself technology, so we went. She also had a name stick on her, and it still does, she is Moon Unit, or just Moon if you're nasty.

We had a ball in Vegas and since I'm writing this when we went to Speed Zone I smoked her and I extracted many favors from the victories I achieved in mini golf as we got a weekend pass. We went to the Sphere and other shows and were super married for the 3 nights we were there. 

On the way out of town as we headed for the 15 and back to Los Angeles sweetie said something like all we have is our go bags and they're with us, and I idly said hey why don't we go by the Grand Canyon, it's a fun drive and she answered, why not, it's not like we're not packed, so we went, and after another weekend this time filled with marriage and breathtaking beauty when Sweetie said all we got is our go bags before we even got in the car. 

When I got on the freeway, I pointed Moon east and let her turbos sing.

Welcome to the #EvacueeDiary.

#EvacueeDiary II — We Were Never Coming Back to This House

By American standards for a western community Altadena is old. It was founded primarily by eastern families that made their fortunes in the 1800’s. My house was built by JW Clise. He made his fortune by arriving in Seattle soon after it suffered a great fire and established a real estate empire that still exists. He had 1255 built after his wife Anna became ill.

We had grown complacent about the fires in the hills. If you lived in Altadena for a while you got used to them. There had been other serious fires, the Station fire for one comes to mind, but they always stayed on the mountain. We would watch them burn with a sort of detachment, the fires never came off the hills as far as Altadena Dr. not even close.

That complacency created a sort of bravado. During the Station fire I posted up on the roof of 1255 with a garden hose and sprayed it with water. I was confident I could spot fight anything that hit the roof and caught fire, I was a regular junior fireman. On the night of the Eaton fire I made similar plans. I gathered up my hose from the front yard where I saw my neighbor packing his dogs for departure. He was new to the neighborhood moving in next door after a long time resident who built on what had been the vacant lot we played in as children next door. He asked me about my plans, and I told him the fires just burned on the mountain, then around the corner to Lake St., when they were really bad they might go to La Vina on the west side of town, but never would it come off the mountain to Altadena Dr. He kind of smiled at me said "no kidding?" then continued to put his stuff in his car. I shrugged and went back in the house.

When I got there Sweetie was in the midst of an operation to get our stuff out of the house. We had planned massive remodeling. We were prepared to put our belongings in plastic containers with handles on them to fight the dust and dreck of the impending work. She had gone into overtime placing shoes and clothes and a variety of things she had planned to take with us in them.

I, on the other hand, complained about it. I said "Sweetie we're just going to have to unpack all this stuff" I was thinking I was going to have to unpack all that stuff, but she paid me no mind, and strongly suggested I begin doing the same then she said something that I will always remember, she told me we were never coming back to this house.

Then the wind changed gears, from 2nd at 40 mph to 3rd hitting 60 and still pulling hard. Clise was a horticulturist, in Seattle his estate became a public garden. In Altadena our yard was full of majestic and interesting trees, and none of them enjoyed nearly hurricane force winds, 1255 didn’t either. It had sleeping porches with windows that would blow open and when a few did I began to batten down the house's hatches, and when I heard one go bang on the eastern side of the house I started there and looked out the window to see if I could see the fire. I could, it erupted over the hill behind 1255 with flames the size of a cruise ship. I called Sweetie over, she did note the progress, we took some pictures, and then