The dog enjoyed the sunny afternoon:
and 'Jasmine' was also out warming her pretty colorful scaley skin in the sun.
To the horror of our teenie who bolted through the front door yelling 'Jasmine is out there' because she was terrified to see the little monster was not even afraid of her.
We had to evacuate the home on Monday with all our pets and the most important papers.
Well, I must admit that the family had to evacuate on their own. I had gone up to a Casino Resort Hotel which is about 1 hour north of San Diego to arrange the sales conference that our company was holding there. I left on Sunday morning, and by noon we got a call that a big fire had started in Ramona. One of the colleagues left because they had to evacuate their horses. Not fearing any further danger, we continued setting up our registration desk and the conference area. The news got worse by the hour. The freeways were closed down. We were stuck up north. I gave instructions to the family what items needed to be packed into the cars. By 10am the next morning they left and stayed with friends. We were isolated at the resort and just continued our conference, no other choice. We invited our families to come stay at the hotel, but the freeways were closed down. As long as everyone knew that their families were safe and we were safe up there, it was ok. Our international guests from Asia and Europe were impressed with the organisation and help from everyone.
By Tuesday morning we had to leave in a rush ourselves. The resort was evacuated too. We packed our boxes up in all the available cars, re-booked the flights of our international guests and sent them off to Los Angeles airport instead of returning to San Diego. Then got into our cars and drove south, fearing that we would not get far, but we were lucky that the freeway had opened again.
Safe with friends and family, we got the news that our best friends had lost their home in Rancho Bernardo. Nothing is left, only the chimney. This is their house, they showed it on the newscast and interviewed them.
They had to leave at 4am on Monday morning and had 5 minutes to get out. They were lucky to make it on time, but could not save anything.
I feel so sad and can't even imagine how they are feeling. We are doing our best to help them as much as possible. My friend is strong, she will get back on her feet and her 4 girls are the best in the world. But I know exactly how hard it is not being able to go 'home' when you are tired and exhausted and just want to get away from everything.
The fires are under control, the firemen did an awesome job. The people of the City of San Diego were great in helping and volunteering everywhere. The sky is still red and smells smokey. But it is over.
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