Wildfires

Hello to all. The Schmidt Family is fine here in San Diego. The fires did not come too close to our home, and all immediate friends and family in the area are fine. We went to LA for 2 days and 1 night for a couple of auditions for Joel and Lydia and to get out of the ash. It's a sad day when you go to Los Angeles for better air quality. We had fun, though, playing at parks, swimming and seeing a movie that cost us $50 for a family of four.

The fires here have been horrible, but for the damage they have done, there has been little life lost. Most are 50% contained now. The schools have been cancelled all week, and the high school around the corner from us has been an evacuation center which is closing today. Today the skies are blue, but you can see the smoke in the periphery. There is also not so much ash swirling around. We were just in a cloud of smoke and ash before. It was like you were sitting on the wrong side of the campfire. The pictures are from the back yard the morning after the ash started falling. It got worse after this. The last are the tracks from the pool cleaning up ash and some leaves because it was very windy. There is usually nothing on the bottom of the pool, so that is mostly ash. We are very lucky to just have ash, and to have clearer skies today.

Driving back from LA, we saw a couple of fires on Camp Pendelton. The flames were high and moving. It was a little frightening to all except for Ryan who has wanted to be a firefighter and said, "At last, I get to see the fires." The next morning, he came to me with his gardening gloves on and said, "I think firefighting is boring. I want to be a trash man." I would like to post a picture of our trash man right now wearing Lydia's dance costume from last year, but I'm afraid it would become an internet sensation and he may never live it down.