There's a Joni Mitchell song called "California" that I think I've quoted here previously. She sings, "Oh California I'm coming home". Tonight, I am not at home. I came up to the high desert house with my mother in law and my husband and three puppies in tow. We hadn't had power all week and I couldn't shiver in the dark anymore. It was a good decision. It was warm. I was able to charge my phone. The dogs were safe. We could make dinner and did. And I have an espresso maker here too. So that was good.
Yes, the longer drive to work was hard. And I forgot my court shoes and had to buy some at Target. But all in all, it was fine. Compared to what others went through in California, it was nothing.
Then yesterday late afternoon, I'm at work in a unit meeting and see Little Mountain, which abuts my house in unincorporated San Bernardino near Devore, was on fire. I freaked out until someone informed me it was controlled. Everything was fine. But is it?
The amount of loss in California is really unfathomable. I have a few friends in Altadena that lost everything. I've heard that many of my law school colleagues lost their homes in LA and the Palisades. People have perished. Schools are gone. Animals have died. Communities have been leveled.
Where do we go from here? Will there be a mass exodus from California? I'm rethinking where to go from here. I can't do many more of these power outages and the risk of fire in my area of the wind tunnel is real.
So I guess I should just breathe. Hold my shih tzus and family close. Help the people I can in the criminal system. Drink coffee. Lots of coffee. Just so you know it's 4:39 am. My dogs woke me at 3 am and I've been up since.
This is my life. This is my rant.