Januray 1st: We attended the 2025 Rose Parade, front-curb seats thanks to my Pasadena cousins.

January 7: Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire and 24/7 fire watch in my ‘hood, Watch Duty the only reason we had minutes of sleep that night as 90mph gusts shook our windows. 2 sets of our family were evacuated from their homes and communities were destroyed.

January 19: Palisades and Eaton fires contained-ish, evacuations lifted-ish. My family’s homes made it, including Pasadena cousins’ home–but they can’t leave the house or they won’t be allowed back up their street. Luckily they have enough food and they have power.

January 20th: If you look at Santa Clarita on an NWS map, my city is smack in the path of incoming Santa Ana winds.

January 20th: Winds arrived 9am, earlier than predicted. Gusts aren’t the predicted 80 mph, supposedly this will happen in the middle of the night, as we sleep (of course!). As you know from my photos on Instagram, my area is high desert, high-desert-gorgeous and: dry.

January 20th: Spent the day loading the minivan with suitcases/supplies packed since 1/7 and anything else I could think of–certain framed photos, my wearable blanket the cats like to sleep on, my son’s Nintendo Switch, horse show ribbons I won when I was a teenager, the Yoda figure on my desk, favorite coffee mug, etc. Baked a Keto yellow cake for my diabetic husband. Made a 3 bean, low-salt stew, paninis for the teen, and a creative cabbage salad (toasted farro sprinkles, miso dressing). May still bake cheesy popovers.

Cooking calms me down.

I didn’t know this until today.

Yours in bluster predicted to end Tuesday 2pm, yours in hating to hate wind, yours in kitty carriers kitties can’t escape from as you’re trying to drive, yours in everything, everything good,

PB