raining ashes

As you may have heard, Orange County is on fire. Hooray OC! Finally making headline news for something not involving Dennis Rodman and Police.

 

Right now the fire is tragically inconvenient for me. The map shows the current fire zone and my Aunt and Uncle live literally one street away from the Required Evacuation point on the Anaheim side and my Parents live a hop, skip, & jump from the other side, in the Cleveland National Forest. So far, no one is losing their house or their life... we're all safe and sound and I suppose I should be thankful. Instead, I am crabby. Why? Well, for one thing the traffic. Because the Toll Road [which I despise anyway, thanks to being illegally built on protected land and being an environmental disaster] is closed, it has displaced literally HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of drivers, who live inland and commute to Orange County. The Toll Road is the main portal for these people, who are now back on the crowded freeways, making things... more crowded. Fortunately, I don't commute on the freeways, but I am still feeling the burn [zing!] because I live near 2 major thoroughfare streets and the 5 freeway. Everyone and their brother thinks that they have a bright idea : let's avoid the freeway for as long as possible and take surface streets. Great. Until 200,000 more cars show up and leave my whole neighborhood in gridlock. That means, for me to make my 4 mile commute home it's taking me more than 30 minutes and god forbid I want to go back out for say, groceries, because I am stuck behind all the side-streeters.

 

Beside the traffic, which really I can suck up and get over, is the smoke and ash. Depending on the way the wind is blowing, it is either the most beautiful day you have ever seen, or else you're practically downwind of a BBQ with ash blowing into your eyes and lungs. Loverly. We've resorted to turning on the air conditioner to help with the filtration in the house, but still all of my clothes smell like I've been roasting weenies. Which could be a good thing, if my sinuses weren't so dry that I want to kill someone.

 

And because misery loves company, I just found out that my Million Dollar Tooth [the world record setting most expensive crown-cap-root canal combo] needs to be redone. Ugh. It started aching last week and the DDS said that yep, he's gotta go back in there... and that could potentially ruin the cap [which is pure gold and apparently filled with diamonds, based on the retail appraisal] so I may have to pay for ANOTHER one. I'm seriously wondering how I'd look with dentures and just never going back to the dentist ever -- is that feasible? I was thinking some wooden chompers a la George Washington. Whaddaya think?