Fires all around

I have such a great respect for firefighters and police officers.  Living in San Diego County, this is what we have been dealing with for a couple of days.

It has amazed me that as people are fleeing, these incredible men and women have been going straight into the fires fighting on the front lines, dropping fire repellent from the sky and rescuing people from the ground.  In the middle of this is residents, like me, who feel helpless.  I'm caught between feeling survivor's guilt and being ready at a moment's notice to evacuate.  Since I live by myself, the most important things for me to take are my two kitties and my fireproof security box full of important papers.  Everything else really is replaceable at the end of the day.

I am situated about 7-10 miles away from the heart of a fire in my city.  This particular fire actually started in an adjacent city and then drifted into mine.  It's on the west end of the city and I'm on the east, so I'm not feeling immediate danger of my house burning down.  However, the smoke and ash have drifted into my area so it is harder to breathe.  I first noticed it this morning when, like a supreme idiot, I went out into my backyard to work on some weeds.  My school district is closed down today and tomorrow because of the fires, so I figured I had time to work out there before it hit the 104 degrees at home it eventually would today.  In a matter of minutes, I was coughing pretty consistently.  It just didn't dawn on me that I was close enough to be affected.  Doh!

I wanted to get some exercise in since I did a pretty bad job with reaching my step goal yesterday.  I couldn't go walking outside and my gym is closed due to poor air quality, so I decided to walk in place at home while watching the news coverage.  This just goes to prove to me that I can get in my exercise no matter what the circumstances.

Later on in the day, feeling mentally exhausted from fire-talk all day long, my therapist had a last minute booking and was able to squeeze me into an appointment since I had miss it yesterday because of the fires.  I had to drive through town to get to the freeway since my appointment was a little distance away.  While I'm not in immediate danger from the fire, you can see it coming my way.

I pray for all those people who lost their homes to the fires (there are nine in our county right now) and those in danger.  I pray for the continued strength of the first responders.  I have no idea how they're doing it.  Just watching them is exhausting!  Tomorrow I'm going to drive out to the coast to get some exercise in at the beach where there is some fresh air, no soot falling from the sky and a little bit cooler weather than at home.  I pray they can contain these fires soon.