la cañada fires; the view from my front yard at midnight, august 30th 2009
Written on August 30, 2009
the wildfires look much closer than they actually are, still far enough away that there doesn’t seem to be much fear of evacuation, at least not in pasadena where i live. i’ve been holed up with a summer cold the past few days, watching the flames burn over the ridge in the distance at night. today i’m finally feeling a little better; enough to be able to smell the smoke, at least. it’s hard to tell now if i’m congested because of a cold or because of the poor air quality. driving around town yesterday felt a little like being in a stephen king novel. everyone went about their business, but there was a red haze to the air and a giant cloud floating above the city. people would ocassionally glance nervously at the cloud, or stop to point at an area where they could see flames. people would take camera phone pictures. it was a strange combination of business-as-usual and wonderment.