Tuesday's Tidbits

Recovering from vacation -- and back to blogging. Happy Fourth of July every one. Hope you had a safe one. Ours was quite a bit harrowing for a few hours. We live at the end of the valley, about three blocks away from the hills that separate our county to the next. Today with the sweltering heat and summer breezes, a fire broke out atop the ridge overlooking our housing community. We were spending time with family when we noticed the helicopters and smoke billows in the sky. We raced to the park to get a better view and saw the fire and smoke, barely being contained by the efforts of at least eight fire engines and water-dropping helicopters. Each time we looked up to find a line of fire coming down our side of the hill, our hearts stopped, but luckily and thanks to our firefighters, the fire was finally contained. We've had all kinds of fires here in CA, but nothing has ever come this close before. I'm happy to say no one was hurt and the no homes were endangered. But oh, that was enough fireworks for me on the FOURTH. Time to end our little vacation now and get back to work!