Things seemed to have calmed down a bit...except for a few hot spots, the area I live in is definitely out of danger. Though I heard the Santa Anas are supposed to be up and about again towards the end of the week. We'll see. Friends and family, some of whom I haven't talked to in years all called me or immed me asking how I was doing. I was a little surprised by the number of people inquiring to see if we were ok. Mom called me EVERY DAY and even my usually quiet sister popped her head out to im/call. Apparently Mom's house was the call and command center of Southern California, all the Canadian relatives and maternal Aunts (one was even on vacation in Japan and called), and she calmly assured everyone that everything was okay.

Then she'd call me right after. "Is everything okay still?"

School was canceled for the week and Hubby's company closed Monday and Tuesday, and you'd hear crazy stories of how in a row of houses, one house would survive the fire while the two to either side of the surviving house were completely destroyed. The radio was inundated with insurance companies ads saying, "WE CARE". One tiny car dealership (they weren't in the danger zone at all) evacuated their entire fleet of cars, so it was weird driving by and seeing an empty car lot. Luckily the businesses in the area were still open, so we could still go to the market and get groceries, pop into McDonalds or something. Spending the week at home with Hubby and the kids (and trying to work but not very successfully) though at times was a little crazy, it definitely drew us closer.

Someone mentioned that this fire evacuation (for SD) was the largest since the Civil War. I don't think the enormity of this whole thing has hit me yet.