Beautiful. Dangerous.

It's that time of the year again. October. This week the Santa Ana wind conditions are back in Southern CA. Last year at this time, we had to evacuate our house due to wildfires nearby. The winds are coming in from the desert instead of the ocean, and it's bone dry (like, less than 10% humidity). Almost as soon as the meteorologists say it's red flag conditions for fires, the fires start. On Tuesday at work, my friend Susan stopped by my cube and said, "Black Mountain is on fire! Maybe you need to go home and pack up." I ran to the windows and sure enough, the hill between my work and my house was on fire. We stood there and watched two fire helicopters drop water on it, and many fire engines on the hill battling the fire. It was put out within an hour, so I didn't go home and pack up our stuff. Sure, these days are dangerous because of the fires. But they're also the most gorgeous days you would see in San Diego. There isn't a cloud in the sky, even at the beach. No marine layers. Just pure, unadulterated blue skies for as far as you can see. The air is dry and crisp, and cool in the mornings and evenings. I picked up a book at Costco last Friday and finished reading it on Monday: Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. It's like literary fiction combined with mystery. There's definitely more character development than a standard whodunit novel. I wanted to find out the mysteries, so I kept reading and reading, only to be left hanging a little bit at the end because a couple of the characters will be in her next book. I dislike that. :(