Am safe! My home's safe! My office's safe! Really thank Lord for this. Had it not been for Him, things would definitely been much worse! Had it not been for Him, I'd probably be saddened by the loss of property, or even my job! Many things could have happened, but He had saved me from this.

Remember the last time I was looking for an apartment, and I was deliberating between the one in Poway and the one in Escondido? And I almost chose Poway because it's closer to work and supposedly safer? I would have been in a lot more mess if I had wanted to save some money and stayed there, cos that's one of the really hot spots!!!

Or if I had chosen to seek my manager's advice and live somewhere near Del Mar, I'd be in hot soup (literally) as well. But I didn't choose all that. I chose Escondido, which is north of Rancho Bernardo's hot spot, and fortunately (for me) Santa Ana is fanning southwest at 60mph (or 102 mph in the peaks). There's another hot spot at the Riverside, which is north of my place, but it's not as bad, I think. Besides, the wind's blowing towards the west side, and my place being directly south of it, would have escaped much of it, even though 70 homes in Escondido has been burnt.

My office could have been burnt, as well but it escaped unscathed. *Phew*

Oh well, anyway, I took pictures! Even stopped by the road shoulder on the freeway to get the camera from the bag which I stupidly put in the boot (I refuse to say trunk)! How can I miss this one in a lifetime (hopefully) sight! I mean, being in Sg, we could only suffer from the effects of the Indonesian forest fires, and not see the actual thing for ourselves, and I'm actually looking at it now with my own eyes, and escaping from it!!! Cool, but ermz... dangerous. So, no thanks. How worried I was when I left my apartment yesterday, thinking that my apartment (and my new furniture!!!) may be gone when I return. Thank God again!!!

My escape route to my bro's place in Fresno wasn't an easy one either, and things could have been a lot worse if it were 3 years ago and GPS for the car wasn't common (or invented?). Imagine being at a place where thr north and south of the major highway (I-15) is being cordoned off and you are forced to use the smaller ones. There's a route which leads to another major highway, which is the most direct path to my bro's place, but it would be extremely congested if I had used that, so it would be really unwise to do so, unless I wish to go on a 12 hrs rumble to my bro's place.

So in the end, common sense tells me to go east, since the winds are blowing southwest. I didn't expect I-15N to be blocked off since most of the fires are in the south. So my plans to take I-15N, which already isn't the usual route to my bro's place, and take a detour around LA to get to I-5, which is the other major highway, but would have been less congested at LA, fell apart.

So I had to look at the GPS while I was on the highway for alternative routes. And so I really owed GPS for this. I chose to go east on highway 76 all the way till I meet highway 371 which goes north, and that was quite a distance (around 30miles I think). But all I knew was to go east to avoid the fires, the blockages, and the traffic, and north to get to my bro's place. The entire detour took like 2.5 hours, which involved a really mountainous winding road that sapped most of my energy for driving. Oh well, at least I managed to reach my bro's place by 9.30pm.

Okiez, that's about it for my escape. Probably many people didn't think much about it cos it's so far away, and they're not involved. But being one of the 350k evacuees, I finally could feel for myself what it is like to be in the middle of a disaster. Singapore is just so sheltered from these kind of stuff, that even though we know that we should show our compassion, we still lack the actual experience to truly understand what the people are going through. The thought of losing everything that you have, losing someone you are close to.

There's much to be learnt from this as well. I finally feel the true example of "don't put all the eggs in a basket". Imagine I was one of the shopkeepers who had got the shop burnt down, and that's all I have. My whole life would be gone just like that! But if I had one there and maybe, one in NY, then at least I can rely on the one in NY to get through this stage. Really, so it's no wonder why some of them refused to leave when they're being told to. Cos they probably find it easier to die with their shops than to face a life of poverty.

Oh well... but I must really commend US for handling this so well. This is probably another few things US can be proud of. I mean, it's such a huge fire, and damages and fatalities could have been much worse. But they actually could get much of the situation under control in a few days. I think that's really amazing. I wouldn't know how to do that if I were the commander man... when I face a few mountains of fire, and over 300k acres of fireland!!! That's just crazy!!! So I think they handled it really well.

And remember I was previously complaining about high US taxes? I finally understood why they had such high taxes alr... Imagine how much resources are spent just because of this stupid fire? The entire rescue work, and the aftermath. And in addition to fire, there's hurricanes, floods and earthquakes. If any of these strike a city like SD, how much would be lost. I suddenly feel so ignorant when I recall that I complained about the taxes and what the government do with the money. But of course, I still think that the govt is bad in putting some of the money into war lahz... That's stupid, and I totally disagree with that!!! YES to save people, NO to WAR!!! But nonetheless, at least I feel a little better paying the taxes now.

Alright gotta go and sleep. Back to work tomorrow and gotta drive back down tonight. Will post some pics when I get them onto the comp. Many thanx to the few of you who asked about me! You guyz rock!!! :)