San Diego - it is hell

City is covered in thick smoke clouds - sun blocked out all day,

ash covering my home and car, no training planned for next day or so, can hardly breath the stuff, smoke, ash, soot ... bad - very bad

city is closed, worst fire I've ever been in (second only to Mt St Helens when i was a kid)

What about Dan's and the slowtwitch compound?

Thanks for asking, we are doing fine up here. The fires are all around us, and the santa ana winds are blowing the smoke away from us. Had some great training sessions in the past couple of days, but just hoping that the fire bug setting these fires doesn't set one around here. It might be a different story once the winds shift, but for now all is well in Xantusia. By the way, Dan is in Yosemite right now for a few days, well away from the danger....

Monty

Happy to hear it....Good luck!

I expected Dante to walk out of the hills this afternoon and welcome us to a tour of the newest circle of hell.

Today I saw one of the most incredible things I've ever seen: a wind-driven conflagration moving through a flat heavily-overgrown wilderness area at about 100mph (160kph). I'm not exaggerating at all. I never would have believed the speed had I not seen it myself. Its leading edge was not a "wall" of fire; it was more like a cloud, as if the air itself was burning. It was truly frightening.

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"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." -- Bertrand Russell

Showed up for an off-road 10k this morning. Canceled due to bad air. Thought about driving to Santa Monica to escape the smoke and to get some workouts in, but someone told me the air was bad there too. I wound up bagging it altogether.

I'm on the coast out in La Jolla, and awoke Sunday morning to the blackest cloud cover I'd ever seen. It reminded me of hurricane weather from back east. Ash was falling like snow. I'm probably 20 miles from the closest fire. Can't imagine what those people are going through.

Right now, I'm sitting in my office looking out over La Jolla Cove. I can't even see the bouy markers 500 meters out into the water. My throat is burning. I was planning on a run test session today. That's out.

This is the real deal. Horizon-to-horizon smoke and it's not letting up.

Sucker went right by my hose in Moorpark. Whole sky is orange from the Simi fire. Too damn close for comfort. Here's a pic from yesterday -- about 2 miles from our home. Too bad Moorpark wasn't mentioned more. It was a success by all counts as the Fire Crews kept the flames from almost every building and ushered it out of town. If there are any fire fighters out there, you guys rock!

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No sidewindin bushwackin, hornswaglin, cracker croaker is gonna rouin me bishen cutter!