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In case anyone has 1) not watched television, listened to the radio, or been online recently or 2) has no idea exactly where I live...

Southern California is ablaze with fires.

New fires broke out around UCI, Foothill Ranch area, which makes me concerned. Those who have visited the campus know what I mean when I say that my concern stems from the parts of Irvine that are used for hiking, the high brush areas where the annoying rabbits live. There's a lot of it. And it is very, very dry.

Several of my students came home from college, to the suburbs of Los Angeles, where the fires are not imminent, but the ash, soot, and haze still loom above us. Sports games have been canceled or postponed. Most everyone is suffering from some sort of allergy, eye irritation, and congestion. The sky has been a smoky orange.

Power has been inconsistent. Because of the fires, transformers have been closed, causing power to be rerouted. In the meantime, none of the clocks at school are right.

Overall, I think people have been rather calm about the situation. There are firefighters risking their lives to stop the fires from spreading. Fires are expected around this time of the year, although not in such a high volume. Though it is a different spin in terms of coverage. Television and newspapers tend to go on the search to assign blame, asking about preparedness, giving proper warnings and questioning how matters were handled. NPR has more of a "it happened in 2003, so why are people so surprised that this would happened again? Here is an update from the fire OFFICIALS" approach. But the powers that be say that there is hope near, with the temperatures going down and the humidity up.