Bulldozers Bash the Ash with Advents, Rockets and Zebras

The Thomas Fire, the one that forced us from our house under a mandatory evacuation order, is now the largest wildfire (440 square miles) in California history. Luckily, however, it is now moving away from, well, moving away from us. Containment is at 75%. Some fire fighters are heading home… and speaking of ‘home’, early Thursday afternoon, my phone chimed to alert me to an incoming text message:

ALL SANTA BARBARA EVACUATION ORDERS LIFTED

“Nazy! We can go home!” I exclaimed as her phone chimed with the same message.
advent calendar

We didn’t exactly “rough it” during the week that we were evacuated: We spent two days at the Ritz Carlton Bacara resort (courtesy of Melika and Tom) and then stayed in their opulent guest room for the other days. However, as Dorothy, a noted philosopher from the Emerald City, has pointed out, “There is no place like home”. And home was where we kept the..

“… Advent Calendar, Dan!” Tiger exclaimed. “We have to open number 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20.”

(Tiger
likes numbers.)

Note: Nazy found an Advent Masterpiece last year. It’s made of wood and has lots of
exciting doors.

CombiningTiger’s urgent requests with my own desire to see the house and get another handful of underwear, We drove to the Old Mission where I discovered an unmanned police roadblock. Tiger and I snuck past the barrier and continued to the house. We both collected our stuff. I got a bag for Tiger’s advent treasurers because…

“I want to hide them, Dan.” Tiger explained.

“Hide them?”

“I don’t want Arrow to break my things.”

Tiger on Christmas Day


Tiger Christmas 2017

FWIW: Our home was never really that close to the fire boundary. In fact, a superficial glance at the map would make you think that the fire would have to scorch hundreds of houses before it got to ours. However, the fire did destroy more than 1000 houses and we live right next to a canyon and dry creek bed. If the fire breeched the fire barrier, it could have rapidly shot down the canyon: it wouldn’t have to burn all those houses to get to ours. The firefighters were magnificent and we were very lucky.

Although Christmas preparations were a little rushed (we got back home late afternoon of December 21st), Santa Barbara had, for the first time ever, a White Christmas. Aware that our ‘white’ wouldn’t melt, Nazy and I spent most of the 22nd wearing masks as we swept and then hosed the ash away. We’re ready for a …

launch 1

“… party, Nazy!” I exclaimed.

“Party?”

“To celebrate the end of the ash… a Bash the Ash party, my dear.”

“Let’s do
Christmas first.”

After our ash disposition, Nazy and I were watching Arrow and Tiger at Melika’s home. I knew that a major rocket launch from Vandenberg was scheduled for 5:25 that evening. It was predicted to be visible for miles, indeed for
hundreds of miles. Accordingly, I took Tiger outside to watch.

We walked to the top of the driveway and looked around. We could see a few stars. But we didn’t see anything untoward.

“Where is that rocket, Dan?” Tiger asked as the time clicked to 5:28. It was cold outside.

“Maybe that rocket is broken, Tiger,” I replied. I knew that there was a very narrow, 1 second, launch window. If it didn’t go off on-time, it would need to be rescheduled.

“Let’s go back inside,” I continued. Disappointed.

I started down the driveway and then..

“That rocket was right there, Dan!” Tiger exclaimed as he looked over my shoulder. (It turns out that launch was 5:28PM not 5:25.)

We saw a rapidly moving light trailed by a long white exhaust plume. As we watched, the rocket staged: the first stage stopped firing and, after a brief pause, the second stage began. Because the rocket was launched just 30 minutes after sunset, the exhaust was backlit and spectacular. It got better:


Rocket 3


I immediately posted the photo onto Facebook and quickly discovered that I wasn’t the only one who saw the launch. It was on the local news, the network news and the BBC. A friend living in Arizona saw it. We could also hear it, the roar is very clear on the video that I shot.

Arrow on Christmas Day

Arrow Christmas 2017


We celebrated Christmas with an extended family brunch at La Cumbre. (We missed Darius, Christiane and the Lovely Leandra, who are in Lebanon and Stefan, who mediates at Joshua Tree every Christmas season.) Nazy looked very, very Christmasy.

Dan and Nazy (XMAS best letter)

Later that day, I took Tiger with me to do some Christmas shopping. And..

“You can get something for Arrow.” I explained.

“Are we going to Chicken Little?” Tiger asked.

“Yes,” I replied. (Chicken Little is a toy store.)

“You get something for Arrow, Dan. I’ll play with the trains.”

“What does he want?”

“You know,” Tiger replied as he dashed to the trains.

I got a Zebra toy (Arrow
really likes Zebras) and some rubber duckies. Then I went to get Tiger. Unfortunately on the way out we walked by a huge display of Bruder (toy) Trucks. He spotted exactly the dump truck that we had bought for him. It was..

“… blue and yellow, Dan. My favorite colors. We can buy that one.”

nazy kinky boots

“No, we can’t. We came to buy a present for Arrow.”

“Arrow can buy a present for me.”

“Arrow is not here, Tiger.”

“You can buy it, Dan.”

“I can’t, Tiger. We have to go home. Maybe that truck will..”

“You can, Dan. I
just want that truck.”

I had to tickle him to change the subject.

The truck (and the Zebra) were huge hits on Christmas Day. And, following tradition, I joined a large subset of family members on a trip to the movies: Star Wars. Nazy had volunteered to stay at home, babysitting with both Tiger and Arrow. I was feeling very guilty about this arrangement until Mitra offered to stay home and help.

While we were gone, Mitra took Tiger and his dump truck and his bull dozer to Mission Park where they constructed a labyrinth with rocks collected by the dozer and transported by the dump truck.

For last week's letter, please click here

Tiger and his construction project


Tiger and laberybth

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