Sure wish we could send you some of our rain. We are deluged with rain here in So. Cal. It was a wet and soggy Rose Parade here yesterday and we haven't been able to take our Christmas company to Disneyland or anything due to all the rain. Wish we could send it YOUR way to DOUSE all those fires! We had fires in 2002 here in Claremont, Ca. The fire photos from TX and Okla. look like our 2002 fires. And my college roommate lives down by San Diego. A couple of years ago they had bad fires in her neighborhood and a lot of the homes burned down. Her house was spared, but her husband refused to leave. If you heard of a crazy man there running around with a water hose, it was him. She said their yard looked like a lava flow. Living here in So. Cal. we have fires, floods, earthquakes, Santa Anna winds, and way too many liberals. We are cursed.
I have lived in San Diego (my husband grew up there and was stationed at Coronado until '97)--I remember waking up one morning, looking out the window, and seeing ash raining down on the cars outside (we lived in Imperial Beach and I think the fires were in the San Ysidro area)! As I was driving later that morning, I looked behind me and saw a huge dark cloud raining ash. And yes, those Santa Anas were quite something. I do miss the nice moderate weather there though!