Last post on the fires... I promise

After work I was going to get my trucks oil changed, but the place was packed so I took the long way home because that's the slightly more poetic route and has a ton less traffic than the 101. It also skirts most of the areas devastated by the fires. Anyway once I hopped on the 118 (the Ronald Reagan fwy) you could see why they had closed the freeway last week; the fire had burned right up to the roadside. Miles and miles of hills and canyons were charred black... except for small scattered oases of homes. Clusters of houses in the hills where the fire had burned within feet of the homes, in some cases, all around the homes but the structures remained unscathed. Damn those firemen are good. The rest of the area realized that as well. It was eveident from the signs on the overpasses saying "we love our fire fighters."