Wow,  this has been quite a week.  as California burns both north, south and almost in our back yard.   For the first time I had to quickly walk around the house and  make a choice as to what to pack in our car since we were told that we may have to evacuate our home.  First thought was to gather our medicine.  That did not take much thought.  Next were the things needed for two dogs and one independent cat.  Clothes.  How much?  Couple of days?  Is that enough?  Am I pretending that we'll still have a house and be able to be back.  Clothes we can buy.  Next were the photographs.  Oh my, oh my.  I have been the collector for my family and my husbands family of old photographs so I have the originals....And,  I have all these books that carry information about our families.  Many are just one of a kind.... Laying out on a huge table in my office are 22 new booklets of my father's family and they are the only copies because they are not quite finish to be sent off to the printers then the various organizations.....  Cannot take all of that....  And what should I take that are memories of our son whom we lost in 2010?  I do have a  thumb drive I made for his Celebration of Life....  I had already made a thumb drive for our oldest son that has all of his old photos, so,  I had done that about two years ago and give it to him.   Meanwhile, my husband placed on the table our passports and some documents that one needs.... I collected  Garry's childhood album which has not been copied....  Almost forgot Lambkins and Flea,  two dog toys.  Placed them in a basket.  So,  what else?   I could keep gathering stuff or sit down at the kitchen table and take a deep breath and think about what we should do next.

We still didn't have any power so my husband and I checked  the news  on our small transiter radio.  The fires in Laflayette on the north side of highway 24 had burned down a tennis club and had spread to other structures while the fire on the south side of the highway was not contained and that is the one that could spread to our home....

We had very strong wind that trimmed our old oak that is in the middle of our driveway....

As of Thursday, Halloween Day,  fires in Lafayette are out and we have cleaned up the limbs from our  yard and pool.... Next week the tree company will arrive to fix the oak so it will survive another 80 years.....