We were awakened by lightning during the wee hours last Sunday. Thunderstorms are very common in our childhood homes of Houston and St. Louis, and although more rare in our chosen home of Boston, certainly not unusual. On California’s Central Coast, though, one a year seems about the most one can expect. They aren’t earth-stabbing, ear-splitting torrents here either, just remote rumbling interspersed with bright flashes.

Still, we enjoyed it.

Last week we took a mini-vacation to Yosemite which involved quite a bit of driving, and after so much exposure to signs warning of Extreme Fire Danger, it might seem logical than lightning would spark some concern, but it did not occur to us. Newbie Californian Indication Uno.

This single storm sparked several fires, one notably near to us, and this morning we found our cars were covered with ash, so I took mine to the car wash at lunch, and by the end of work it was again covered with ash. Newbie Indication Dos.

In addition to ash raining from above, the sun is reduced to a deep orange circle about the size of the full moon, the sky is overcast in a sort of dull yellowish haze, and deep breathing is not very satisfactory, with or without a mask. We closed all the windows in our house for the first time since “cold” weather, months ago.

Over 20,000 people in our county and the adjacent one to the north have been asked to evacuate already, and the county is asking for donation or loan of family-sized tents. We separately contacted friends to offer our single guest room, even though they don’t know each other at all and there is no way it could sleep more than two people. NI Tres.

At work, patients called to cancel all day, mostly because they were evacuating or preparing for that possibility. One woman had her adult children move in two dogs, three rats, and a handful of chickens, which spent the night in the bathroom. One couple moved into their camper, parking it in the driveway at a friend’s house, even though Covid fears mean they won’t be able to go inside to shower there. One fellow left his street as fire encroached, and was convinced his home was lost, though he hadn’t been able to get any info since leaving.

The local paper suggested that everyone should have an evacuation plan. I was finding it hard to imagine a city of 65,000 being evacuated, then I remembered a few of the hurricanes I had lived through while growing up in the much larger metropolis of Houston. Fires just don’t seem as globe-spanning as hurricanes, though the one nearby is burning 25,000 acres at the moment, and is zero percent contained. Plus they move more quickly, so that must be NI Cuatro, or perhaps just a Hubris indicator.

We spent some time, by which I mean about five minutes, making an evacuation plan tonight. We’ve been thinking of improving the storage options in our garage to open up more space indoors, so we decided to put that plan into action tomorrow, with the inaugural storage items being the things we want to save, mostly memorabilia and musical instruments. Then if we are Called we will load both cars with the new boxes and strike out in a two-car convoy toward Las Vegas. Newbie plan?

If it turns out to be more than a philosophical exercise, I’ll let you know how it works out.