fall weather in California

We had a beautiful "fall" weekend here in Los Angeles. Thad and I thrive on anything below 70 when we can wear sweatshirts and keep the windows open rather than the air conditioner. Saturday, we (thad) watched some college football on his beautiful new t.v- that will be a post in itself and I took Abby to her puppy kindergarten graduation. Yes, I'm obsessed!
Sunday we all went for a long run (we needed it!) in Santa Monica then came back to run some errands in our neighborhood. It was a perfect day to pick a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch. God Bless California people, they try really hard to make it feel like fall.


So today Monday started like any other day for us. When I turned on the news this morning to check traffic and weather, they were reporting on a large brush fire about 15 miles away from us. Very common this time of year, still warm, no rain, and huge Santa Ana gusts of wind. Every October there is some sort of fire in the area and where I work in Simi Valley is a basic fire trap. So the day is moving nicely, again I'm aware of the fire from this morning but not thinking that we are right in the mist of it. Our principal called into my classroom this morning to say it would be an inside day due to the air quality and like most teachers you sometimes don't even leave your room to go to the bathroom. So... when I went to took my students to music class at 11:30 I saw that Armagedon was coming!





That last picture I took as I was pulling out of the parking lot. I was told to go home at 1:00 because the freeways were closing by the minute and I needed to get on the road. I'm home now, we live far from the fires but the smoke is creeping into our Sherman Oaks blue skies very quickly. I just pray that all the students and their homes in Simi Valley are safe. Crazy!