If you’ve seen the original film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall you know what a terrifying movie it is. But give a little judicious re-edit and a little change of music and it becomes the romantic comedy hit of the year!

Shining

The Topanga Canyon Blvd. exits on the 118 are open again, nearly two days after the fire started. Flames are still visible in the ignition area, but the wind has died down and humidity is a little bit higher than it has been. Firefighters are hoping that today they can get a better handle on the 15-mile long leading edge still to the north of the 101.

Smoke now fills the entire bowl of the San Fernando Valley. Ash is raining down, especially noticeable on dark-colored cars. I happened to get up at about 3 this morning and took a whiff out the balcony door; no smell of smoke at all, stars were visible in the sky above. By the time I got up at 6:45, the smoke had returned; the light from the sun rising in the east was brownish-orange, filtering through the particulate.

The smell is everywhere. I asked one of my co-workers if it smelled like smoke in the office; I couldn’t tell whether it was in the room or in my clothes (he smelled it too). Although the calm winds are helpful in the firefight, it also means that the smoke will hang around for a while.

The only reason for this is to commemorate the 100th post in this weblog – this post is it!

My advice to all new bloggers has always been to post something every day. It’s been almost a year since I started this website, so it took way too long to reach a hundred. However, many thanks to you, Dear Reader, for checking in as often as you do, for commenting once in a while.

The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades!

Thought you might like to see where the fire is in relation to where I am. I’m the red icon on the right and one of the fire areas is on the far left. Click on the thumbnail for a larger image.

I’ve got a webcam pointed at my TV so you can see the images from the local TV stations.
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UPDATE: All the stations have gone back to regular programming, so WebTV is off the air.

I just went out to get my laptop out of my car and noted that we’re getting some black ash fallout here in the wind-sheltered courtyard of the apartment complex. What’s to keep a hot cinder from being carried on these winds? The ash I saw was definitely from vegetation, crumbling when touched. None of the white ash about which some people in the southland are talking.

Temps earlier today on the valley floor were in the low 100s (and seemed to feel so much hotter with the added spectre of smoke towering into the sky on the west side). Can’t imagine how those handcrews responsible for protecting the thousands of threatened homes can work in this heat.

The winds have definitely shifted from offshore to onshore, and the sky above my apartment is cloudy with smoke. All the windows are closed and the burning smell is still prevalent inside. The light outside has taken a decidedly orange quality.

The major network TV affiliates in LA (ABC, NBC,and Fox, but not the CBS affiliate, which is showing Dr. Phil – gotta have your priorities) have all preempted programming to broadcast fire news, including evacuation orders and advancing fire lines. Several communities in Chatsworth, where the fire started over 24 hours ago (just a few miles north of me) are under mandatory evacuation orders. Livestock such as horses can be taken to the facilities owned by a junior college in Woodland Hills. Several school districts have cancelled classes until further notice.

It’s almost 4 o’clock in the morning and I haven’t been able to sleep for some reason. I note a strong and not entirely unpleasant smell of smoke with a picant of pine and manzanita in the office as I type this which I haven’t detected heretofore, so I guess the wind has shifted. Sirens and helicopters have been audible all morning, even in this area that the fire has pretty much burned through in its march to the west and south, gobbling up years of underbrush in its path. The fire had threatened The Church At Rocky Peak, and I haven’t heard anything about what’s happened there – their website is down at the moment.

The wind is still blowing like crazy, rippling the surface of the pool – almost sloshing the water like an earthquake might. Can’t imagine what traffic will be like in the morning.

This movie is about 3:45 in length and about 4 mb in size – be patient as it loads!