(And don’t forget the ostomy supplies.) We’ve never had to do an evacuation here–we could only guess where to begin. The people from Paradise say grab your dirty clothes first, because they’re the ones you’ll need the most, but for us it doesn’t look like it’ll be something we’ll need to worry about.

Rainy season is supposed to have started.

This morning there was a bit of brown to the sky and that was it.

Come the afternoon, though, the wind was blowing so hard that even I heard the trees creak and looking out the window was not sure that taller one was going to hold, but it did. Yay.

Sonoma, not so much. People have been evacuated clear to the ocean, which is not close. I’ve never heard of such a thing before. The coastal mountain range is supposed to be perennially damp from the fog and the redwood needles that capture it.

I stepped outside and the fire smell was now as if our own town was the one burning. You didn’t want to be out in that for long. We were at AQI 194, although that’s thankfully down to the 60s as I type. Just like two years ago, there were Van Gogh Starry Night impressions on the visible wind–you’re just not supposed to be able to see air move.

I get to joke that I seem to have briefly smoked pot for the first time in my life, but as the famous quote goes, I only inhaled. And then that was snatched southward and the next blew in from the homes and the wineries and the everything up north and one could only wonder at what the mixtures held and whose dreams were in that smoke.

So far, as far as I know, no one has died in this, and I am highly grateful for that.

Someone reported doing a U-turn in the middle of a bridge, presumably the newly built Carquinez over the bay–the landing at its northern edge was roaring.

With nearly a million people out of power and who knows how many out of their homes, we are within an oasis of safety and comfort here and know how fortunate we are.

But my friend I.M. finally got his hat that had been knit just for him, his friend got one too, and I know that right now there are two very happy people out there and that helps. A lot.