EXOTERIC - Information Worth Sharing: ex·o·ter·ic
-adj
1. Not confined to an inner circle of disciples or initiates.
2. Comprehensible to or suited to the public; popular.
3. Of or relating to the outside; external.

Yesterday we spent most of the morning hanging out in the RV, checking email, using the showers here at work, and communicating with our friends and family. At 3pm we were getting a little stir crazy so we headed down to Fashion Valley Mall. Air quality was pretty good. Still alot of haze in the air, but not so much of the smoke smell.

We walked around the mall and probably more than 75% of the stores were closed. The big department stores were all open, and the AMC movie theater. We decided to watch the Bourne Ultimatum. Great movie!

We talked to one of our neighbors and they told us that one of our tall pine trees in the backyard had been blown completely over. It landed on our chain link fence crushing it, and it was blocking the street. Our next door neighbors also had a couple of trees knocked over. That should give you an idea of the wind strength! One of our friends has volunteered to go over there with a chainsaw and start to clear the street. I wish I had a picture to see what it looks like.

The other news from Ramona is that the pumps that bring water up the hill from Poway have been offline and there is no more water in town. They anticipate another 2 days before they can restore power to the pumps. After the water starts flowing again, we will need to boil water before using for another couple of days while the system gets flushed out.

All roads to Ramona are still closed, and now the town of Julian to the east of us has been evacuated. Hopefully the fires won't turn around and head back to our neighborhood. I've been watching this interactive map for details on the areas affected.

Last night I fired up the BBQ and cooked some chicken for dinner, had a beer and caught up on the fire news. After dinner we watched another movie on DVD in the Gaslamp conference room on the big projection screen. Just like sitting in a theater. There is nothing on TV but continuing coverages of the firestorm. We needed to have some diversion from all of the bad news.

Looks like we will be here for at least a couple more days. Schools have been canceled for the remainder of the week.