January 14, 2025 • 25 mins
Ever found yourself trapped in an electric recliner during a power outage while your Christmas decorations take flight in a windstorm? This week I'm sharing tales about a week of unexpected chaos and resilience in Los Angeles, marked by the anniversary of my mother's passing. Reflecting on the unpredictable nature of life, I recount how a simple morning spiraled into an adventure involving a power outage, mischievous winds, and the Los Angeles fires escalating to a mandatory evacuation order. Amidst these unforeseen events, I find humor and strength, drawing on past experiences with fire threats and the challenges of living surrounded by canyons.
The community's response to recent emergencies has been nothing short of inspiring, despite the chaos spurred by mistaken evacuation orders and shortages of crucial supplies like flashlights and bottled water. This episode shines a light on how adversity has deepened my appreciation for home and reshaped my relationship with my late mother. Celebrating the indomitable spirit of Los Angeles, I highlight the tireless work of firefighters, volunteers, and the outpouring of support for local organizations such as the Pasadena Humane Society. Together, we explore how life's unpredictability can foster gratitude and a renewed sense of community amid the storm.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to the Only Child Diaries podcast.
I'm your host, tracy Wallace.
Have you ever felt like youdidn't receive the how-to
brochure on life, that youdidn't get enough guidance about
major life issues?
So did I.
You don't have to be an onlychild to feel this way.
In my podcast, we'll exploresome of the best ways to better
(00:30):
navigate adulting, while doingso with humor and light.
Welcome everyone to the OnlyChild Diaries podcast.
Today I'm going to talk aboutthe fires here in Los Angeles.
(00:52):
It's been quite a week so far.
Actually, things started onTuesday for me.
I woke up early on Tuesdaymorning.
It was the fourth anniversaryof my mother's passing and I
feel like she had a hand in atleast that day's events.
(01:16):
I woke up because the power hadgone off and all of a sudden it
was very quiet in our house.
And all of a sudden it was veryquiet in our house.
(01:39):
We have multiple air purifiersgoing.
We have a humidifier that isrunning because our cat Bubby is
asthmatic to balance out theair quality and the air humidity
so that he is the mostcomfortable we could make him,
and maybe the heater was on.
I'm not sure, but all of asudden it was very quiet.
Everything stopped but it wasalso starting to get windy and
(02:01):
had fallen asleep in one of ourrecliners, which is an electric
recliner.
My legs were up over my headand I couldn't put the recliner
in the normal seating position,so I was pretty much stuck.
It was like crawling out of ahole, but I did manage to get up
(02:24):
.
It was like crawling out of ahole, but I did manage to get up
.
And I looked outside and Irealized that our award-winning
if I can say that, ouraward-winning Christmas
decorations, which you know Iwas narrowing down when, what
day, I was going to start takingdown everything.
I had actually taken down acouple of things the day before,
(02:48):
a couple inflatables, but I hadthe main portion of the
decorations still intact and Ihad heard that it was going to
get windy, but I never suspectedthat it was going to be this
windy.
So the power was out about anhour and a half and, excuse me,
(03:14):
I at first thought I could tryto do some work.
Then I realized that I didn'thave internet because of the
power issue.
So there goes that idea.
Anyway, the power came back onand the inflatables reinflated,
except for two, and I thought,oh, I better go out and check,
(03:34):
just make sure, look and see howeverything is.
And I realized that the reasonthat these two inflatables had
not reflated if that'sreinflated, sorry was because
they had been now.
Mind you, they were anchoredinto the ground, one of them
(03:58):
very well, the other one maybenot so well, but they were both
anchored into the ground.
Both of them had been rippedout of the electrical socket
that they were plugged into andone of them had been thrown
against the hedge, which waslike 15 feet away, 20 feet away.
(04:19):
So I realized that this wascrisis mode for the Christmas
decorations.
I started to try to at leastrescue those two and I got them
up on the porch.
The poinsettia plants that Ihad were strewn all over the
(04:41):
place.
I realized that I shoulduninflate the other inflatables,
and some of them were smaller.
So I took them out of theground and I got them up on the
porch.
And then I did that for I don'tknow 45 minutes or so, an hour,
(05:09):
and I was still basicallyasleep.
So I just put heavy planterslike pots on the other ones and
I gave up, plus, it was superwindy.
Other ones and I gave up, plus,it was super windy.
It was so windy that when thewind started up I had to cover
(05:37):
my face with my arm becausethere's so much debris roaming
around.
So I came back inside and didthe best I could.
Anyway, went about our day.
And then the next morningWednesday was when I got a text
alert and a phone call it wasbefore 6 am saying that we were
(05:59):
under an evacuation warning.
And now, the day before, I hadseen that the Pacific Palisades
area was on fire and that wasbecause of the wind.
This is like wind that I hadnever seen here.
(06:19):
I mean, I've seen wind.
It had been a long time sincewe had wind like this.
It had been a long time sincewe had wind like this when I was
a kid I think I've told youthis before if you've listened
to all my episodes but myparents and I had gone out
somewhere.
My dad drove separately and wewere coming home one night from
(06:42):
whatever this event was.
My dad was driving ahead of us.
I was with my mom in her carand we were about two blocks
from our house and this treefell down right in front of my
mom's car.
My dad was again ahead of us.
I'm not sure if he saw whathappened behind him or not, and
(07:03):
it was absolutely terrifying.
So I always think about thatand I always think about you
know, all the trees fall downwhen there's a big wind or
rainstorm.
That was pretty windy then, butthis was just crazy wind and in
the back of my mind I didn'twant to jinx myself, you know,
(07:26):
but we live in a fire area.
We're surrounded, you know, ina canyon, by hills that have dry
brush and we're not right upagainst the hill but we're
pretty close.
The insurance company tells methat we're in a fire zone, fire
zone.
So when they said that we werein an evacuation warning because
(07:53):
of the Eaton Fire, if you'refamiliar with that, if you've
heard about it, the Eaton Firestarted over in the Altadena
area.
It was still quite a ways awayfrom us, but they put us in a
warning.
It was still quite a ways awayfrom us, but they put us in a
warning.
And then it was about, I guess,three hours later when we got
(08:17):
the call that it was a mandatoryevacuation.
So once I woke up at six, I justdecided to start packing stuff
up, because we don't travellightly, we don't.
We have all of Bill's supplies,his diabetic supplies that he
(08:43):
needs for his insulin pump andhis CGM, his continuous glucose
monitor, his medications, mymedications, the cat's
medications, his diabeticsupplies and his asthma stuff,
pet food, clothing, my computersID.
I grabbed a couple pictures, acouple photo albums, a couple
(09:08):
keepsakes and some snacks,hygiene supplies, things like
that, started to pack up the car.
But once we got the mandatoryevacuation notice, the thing is
here in the canyon we have 700homes or so in our canyon and
(09:35):
there wasn't any active fireanywhere close to our canyon
ever.
It sounds bad to say, but wenever actually left.
The neighbors on either side ofus also did not leave.
We didn't go out of the house,we didn't go driving around, we
stayed out of everyone's way.
(09:57):
We never saw any fire crewscome by.
The police did do drive-bys uparound.
I think they were looking forlooters.
It was very safe here.
It was very smoky, but I thinkit was very smoky everywhere.
I remember back in the dayliving here as a child that
(10:22):
occasionally there were firescares.
Occasionally there were firescares.
What they do when there is afire is they close off the
canyon and you can only get inwith ID, which makes perfect
sense.
I remember that there was afire on the hill behind our
house and that's three housesaway from us, but it was never
(10:44):
close, is away from us, but itwas never close.
And I know, I know you'resaying well, but they told you
to leave.
Well, they also didn't come andknock on our doors or go down
the street and say you've got toleave.
We just got a phone call.
We stayed here, we were quiet,we were good, we monitored the
(11:04):
situation.
My neighbor actually went outdriving a couple times.
He drove all around, couldn'tsee any fire.
Anyway, the next morning we gotthe call that the evacuation
order was lifted.
Very grateful for that.
I think you know I hadn't reallybeen through this scenario
(11:30):
living here as an adult.
I went through it as a kid butI don't think I ever fully
understood it when there werefires.
I don't think that my parentsever actually left the house.
They were like you know, weworked for this house.
We scrimped and saved and wepaid it off and we worked for
(11:53):
this house and we're not leavingthis house.
There was a story that wentaround that there was a man that
decided to stay and try to savehis parents' house.
He was 60-ish and they cameback and they found him dead
holding the hose.
So the whole thing is difficult.
(12:18):
The whole thing is difficult.
Days have been very hard on usempaths because there are blocks
and blocks of streets that arein Pacific Palisades and
Altadena, where homes,everything is just burned.
(12:43):
It looks like a war zone.
If you haven't seen it on thenews, there's videos, there's
GoFundMe pages.
For days I did finally discoverthat someone I know personally
lost their house.
They posted a video of themdriving up to see it for the
(13:05):
first time.
Now you can't get in to seeyour property at all and it's so
terrible.
I never thought anything likethis would happen here in LA to
this extent.
The last I heard there were12,000 plus structures lost.
(13:29):
It's overwhelming that they'realive and they have their loved
ones.
There's been a very smallamount of people who have passed
away because of this fire.
It's very hard.
(13:50):
A lot of people have reachedout to me from other places in
the country or the world askingif we're okay, because it's been
all over the news.
There's been people that I knowwho live in different parts of
(14:12):
the country, different parts ofthe world, who have reached out
to me to ask if we're okay andbecause you know this has been
all over the news.
But we're fine.
I can say that just what Iobserve about my fellow Los
(14:33):
Angeles neighbors is thateveryone has been on edge.
Everyone's been just a littlecuckoo.
I was at Home Depot the otherday when one of these emergency
evacuation orders came throughour phones but it was done in
(14:56):
error and so everybody in thestore had a phone and
everybody's phone went off withthis you know crazy beeping
noise, and it said there's anevacuation order for your area
and I think everybody was justso on edge you know that it was.
(15:20):
It's just too much.
And to have the evacuationorders anyway but then to learn
that they're going out bymistake, it's like everyone's
just had enough anyway.
It's really nerve wracking.
Everybody's just trying to getthrough.
(15:41):
Home Depot that day did not havea flashlight to sell me or an
air purifier.
I was looking for one.
I didn't really need aflashlight.
I have flashlights but I justthought I'd pick up an extra one
.
But I thought I'd pick up anextra one because I was thinking
that the power might go offagain.
(16:03):
It hasn't, but they were allout.
Home Depot's out of flashlights.
I'm sure they've rectified thatsituation.
I went to the market becauseDoorDash and Grubhub aren't
delivering even now.
We're you know we're what?
Uh, friday, thursday, friday,saturday, sunday we're four days
(16:27):
out from the evacuation orderbeing lifted.
Uh, they will not deliver to usin our area.
So if you want food, you haveto go out and get it yourself,
which is fine I mean, it's firstworld problems but it just
makes things a little bit moredifficult If you're working or
(16:48):
you have things that you have todo.
It's just a little bit moredifficult.
I did go to the market one ofthose first days and I was
trying to get water.
Well, I didn't really needwater, but I thought I'd pick up
some water and there was nowater, no bottled water to be
had, because the water qualityin Pasadena.
They told everybody that, um,you had to use bottled water.
(17:10):
It wasn't the.
The tap water was not safeanymore.
So, uh, yikes, that just makesthings more complicated.
I think what I've learned fromthis is that when I first moved
(17:33):
back here in 21 with Bill, I waskind of ambivalent.
I had a lot of issues with thishouse and it didn't always hold
good memories for me and itwasn't always comfortable.
(17:55):
It didn't make me comfortable,at least in the beginning, but
when I was faced with theprospect of leaving it and
losing it, I lost it.
I really did.
I just I started to really getupset and you know, bill was
(18:16):
watching me as I packed and Iwas going to start having a
meltdown and he said it's goingto be okay and I, you know I,
had to pull it together and so Ithink what I've learned is that
, you know, this is my home andI do appreciate it.
(18:39):
And if that's what my mom wastrying to tell me, they always
tell you that your loved oneswho have passed are watching out
over you and trying tocommunicate and helping you
along.
I don't know if my mom would behelping me, but I posted on
(19:06):
Facebook that day that I, youknow, I know she loved me.
I just don't know that shealways liked me.
I think that's a prettyaccurate representation of our
relationship.
But in the time that's gone bysince she's passed away, I think
(19:28):
I've come to respect her alittle bit more and appreciate
her a little bit more, eventhough she oftentimes acted like
she didn't like me.
But that's okay, because Iunderstand that she didn't
always.
I always understood that shedidn't have the easiest life and
I probably didn't make it anyeasier for her, but anyway, it
(19:54):
is what it is.
So we're okay.
We hear that the winds arecoming back, maybe not as strong
, but we hope for the best.
We pray for our neighbors.
We pray for our neighbors.
We are strong here in LA and welove our town and we'll all get
(20:21):
through this.
I took some supplies over tothe Humane Society and it was
amazing to see the outpouring ofsupport that they received.
Next day they said, okay, stop,we have enough, thank you.
And there's been these pop-updonation sites where people have
accepted clothing and suppliesand all sorts of things, and
(20:42):
they've gotten to a point wherethey've said, okay, enough,
we're overrun, but there are somany people that have been
displaced and we're fortunatethat we, that we were not
displaced.
La is very strong and I'm proudto be living here amongst all
(21:03):
these people.
And you know I won't get intoany of the reasons why this
happened, but it really was theperfect storm.
The winds were justunbelievably, ridiculously
strong.
A lot of people did stay andtry to use their garden hoses,
(21:25):
which really reduced the flow ofwater, the water pressure that
was available to thefirefighters, and there were
just so many fires in so manyplaces that I just don't think
there was a way for them tofight every fire and to save
every house.
(21:45):
I think the firefighters thatwe have have done an amazing job
of saving structures and, ofcourse, saving lives.
In the past I've seen it timeand time again.
There's just so much happening.
(22:06):
This time it just wasn'tpossible and it's very sobering
and I hope that we're on thetail end of it.
I hope that the fires are goingto start to be more and more
controlled and it's not going tostart up again.
That's my hope.
I took those supplies to theHumane Society and I was
(22:28):
thinking about there was thisguy that they found and they
interviewed.
On the news there's been allthese remote interviews where
all the news personnel they'reout in the street or they're at
this fire station, and this onegal was talking to a National
Guard member who had driven, Ithink, from Arizona or Nevada or
(22:51):
something and he had seen thefires on the news and he decided
to drive here and help us,which was great, and he said
that he was a sergeant but hewas going to be a private today.
He was a sergeant, but he wasgoing to be a private today and
(23:16):
he said that he had heard aquote from Jimmy Carter that he
thought was very appropriate.
It was you can't help everybody, but everybody can help someone
.
And that was what he was goingto do and he said right now,
somebody is losing their homeand they need help and I'm here
to help do whatever I can.
It's so true, we can't helpeverybody, because the need is
(23:40):
so great, but everybody can dosomething.
When I went to the HumaneSociety, that's what I felt like
I could do something that day.
I can't make a financialcontribution to all the GoFundMe
pages that I see, but I can doone or two or five or something.
(24:04):
I can't do hundreds of them,but I can help some of them.
That's great.
So everybody can do something.
Everybody can help someone.
So it's something good to thinkabout.
With that, I'll leave you.
That's all I've got for today.
Folks, next week we'll tackleanother topic together.
(24:28):
Next week we'll tackle anothertopic together.
I hope you'll join me.
If you like this episode,please follow the Only Child
Diaries podcast on ApplePodcasts or other platforms you
might listen on and considerrating Only Child Diaries and
writing a review.
It helps others to find us.
Please share it with a friendyou think might like it as well.
(24:51):
Thank you, child Diaries.
Welcome to the Only Child Diaries podcast.
I'm your host, tracy Wallace.
Have you ever felt like youdidn't receive the how-to
brochure on life, that youdidn't get enough guidance about
major life issues?
So did I.
You don't have to be an onlychild to feel this way.
In my podcast, we'll exploresome of the best ways to better
(00:30):
navigate adulting, while doingso with humor and light.
Welcome everyone to the OnlyChild Diaries podcast.
Today I'm going to talk aboutthe fires here in Los Angeles.
(00:52):
It's been quite a week so far.
Actually, things started onTuesday for me.
I woke up early on Tuesdaymorning.
It was the fourth anniversaryof my mother's passing and I
feel like she had a hand in atleast that day's events.
(01:16):
I woke up because the power hadgone off and all of a sudden it
was very quiet in our house.
And all of a sudden it was veryquiet in our house.
(01:39):
We have multiple air purifiersgoing.
We have a humidifier that isrunning because our cat Bubby is
asthmatic to balance out theair quality and the air humidity
so that he is the mostcomfortable we could make him,
and maybe the heater was on.
I'm not sure, but all of asudden it was very quiet.
Everything stopped but it wasalso starting to get windy and
(02:01):
had fallen asleep in one of ourrecliners, which is an electric
recliner.
My legs were up over my headand I couldn't put the recliner
in the normal seating position,so I was pretty much stuck.
It was like crawling out of ahole, but I did manage to get up
(02:24):
.
It was like crawling out of ahole, but I did manage to get up
.
And I looked outside and Irealized that our award-winning
if I can say that, ouraward-winning Christmas
decorations, which you know Iwas narrowing down when, what
day, I was going to start takingdown everything.
I had actually taken down acouple of things the day before,
(02:48):
a couple inflatables, but I hadthe main portion of the
decorations still intact and Ihad heard that it was going to
get windy, but I never suspectedthat it was going to be this
windy.
So the power was out about anhour and a half and, excuse me,
(03:14):
I at first thought I could tryto do some work.
Then I realized that I didn'thave internet because of the
power issue.
So there goes that idea.
Anyway, the power came back onand the inflatables reinflated,
except for two, and I thought,oh, I better go out and check,
(03:34):
just make sure, look and see howeverything is.
And I realized that the reasonthat these two inflatables had
not reflated if that'sreinflated, sorry was because
they had been now.
Mind you, they were anchoredinto the ground, one of them
(03:58):
very well, the other one maybenot so well, but they were both
anchored into the ground.
Both of them had been rippedout of the electrical socket
that they were plugged into andone of them had been thrown
against the hedge, which waslike 15 feet away, 20 feet away.
(04:19):
So I realized that this wascrisis mode for the Christmas
decorations.
I started to try to at leastrescue those two and I got them
up on the porch.
The poinsettia plants that Ihad were strewn all over the
(04:41):
place.
I realized that I shoulduninflate the other inflatables,
and some of them were smaller.
So I took them out of theground and I got them up on the
porch.
And then I did that for I don'tknow 45 minutes or so, an hour,
(05:09):
and I was still basicallyasleep.
So I just put heavy planterslike pots on the other ones and
I gave up, plus, it was superwindy.
Other ones and I gave up, plus,it was super windy.
It was so windy that when thewind started up I had to cover
(05:37):
my face with my arm becausethere's so much debris roaming
around.
So I came back inside and didthe best I could.
Anyway, went about our day.
And then the next morningWednesday was when I got a text
alert and a phone call it wasbefore 6 am saying that we were
(05:59):
under an evacuation warning.
And now, the day before, I hadseen that the Pacific Palisades
area was on fire and that wasbecause of the wind.
This is like wind that I hadnever seen here.
(06:19):
I mean, I've seen wind.
It had been a long time sincewe had wind like this.
It had been a long time sincewe had wind like this when I was
a kid I think I've told youthis before if you've listened
to all my episodes but myparents and I had gone out
somewhere.
My dad drove separately and wewere coming home one night from
(06:42):
whatever this event was.
My dad was driving ahead of us.
I was with my mom in her carand we were about two blocks
from our house and this treefell down right in front of my
mom's car.
My dad was again ahead of us.
I'm not sure if he saw whathappened behind him or not, and
(07:03):
it was absolutely terrifying.
So I always think about thatand I always think about you
know, all the trees fall downwhen there's a big wind or
rainstorm.
That was pretty windy then, butthis was just crazy wind and in
the back of my mind I didn'twant to jinx myself, you know,
(07:26):
but we live in a fire area.
We're surrounded, you know, ina canyon, by hills that have dry
brush and we're not right upagainst the hill but we're
pretty close.
The insurance company tells methat we're in a fire zone, fire
zone.
So when they said that we werein an evacuation warning because
(07:53):
of the Eaton Fire, if you'refamiliar with that, if you've
heard about it, the Eaton Firestarted over in the Altadena
area.
It was still quite a ways awayfrom us, but they put us in a
warning.
It was still quite a ways awayfrom us, but they put us in a
warning.
And then it was about, I guess,three hours later when we got
(08:17):
the call that it was a mandatoryevacuation.
So once I woke up at six, I justdecided to start packing stuff
up, because we don't travellightly, we don't.
We have all of Bill's supplies,his diabetic supplies that he
(08:43):
needs for his insulin pump andhis CGM, his continuous glucose
monitor, his medications, mymedications, the cat's
medications, his diabeticsupplies and his asthma stuff,
pet food, clothing, my computersID.
I grabbed a couple pictures, acouple photo albums, a couple
(09:08):
keepsakes and some snacks,hygiene supplies, things like
that, started to pack up the car.
But once we got the mandatoryevacuation notice, the thing is
here in the canyon we have 700homes or so in our canyon and
(09:35):
there wasn't any active fireanywhere close to our canyon
ever.
It sounds bad to say, but wenever actually left.
The neighbors on either side ofus also did not leave.
We didn't go out of the house,we didn't go driving around, we
stayed out of everyone's way.
(09:57):
We never saw any fire crewscome by.
The police did do drive-bys uparound.
I think they were looking forlooters.
It was very safe here.
It was very smoky, but I thinkit was very smoky everywhere.
I remember back in the dayliving here as a child that
(10:22):
occasionally there were firescares.
Occasionally there were firescares.
What they do when there is afire is they close off the
canyon and you can only get inwith ID, which makes perfect
sense.
I remember that there was afire on the hill behind our
house and that's three housesaway from us, but it was never
(10:44):
close, is away from us, but itwas never close.
And I know, I know you'resaying well, but they told you
to leave.
Well, they also didn't come andknock on our doors or go down
the street and say you've got toleave.
We just got a phone call.
We stayed here, we were quiet,we were good, we monitored the
(11:04):
situation.
My neighbor actually went outdriving a couple times.
He drove all around, couldn'tsee any fire.
Anyway, the next morning we gotthe call that the evacuation
order was lifted.
Very grateful for that.
I think you know I hadn't reallybeen through this scenario
(11:30):
living here as an adult.
I went through it as a kid butI don't think I ever fully
understood it when there werefires.
I don't think that my parentsever actually left the house.
They were like you know, weworked for this house.
We scrimped and saved and wepaid it off and we worked for
(11:53):
this house and we're not leavingthis house.
There was a story that wentaround that there was a man that
decided to stay and try to savehis parents' house.
He was 60-ish and they cameback and they found him dead
holding the hose.
So the whole thing is difficult.
(12:18):
The whole thing is difficult.
Days have been very hard on usempaths because there are blocks
and blocks of streets that arein Pacific Palisades and
Altadena, where homes,everything is just burned.
(12:43):
It looks like a war zone.
If you haven't seen it on thenews, there's videos, there's
GoFundMe pages.
For days I did finally discoverthat someone I know personally
lost their house.
They posted a video of themdriving up to see it for the
(13:05):
first time.
Now you can't get in to seeyour property at all and it's so
terrible.
I never thought anything likethis would happen here in LA to
this extent.
The last I heard there were12,000 plus structures lost.
(13:29):
It's overwhelming that they'realive and they have their loved
ones.
There's been a very smallamount of people who have passed
away because of this fire.
It's very hard.
(13:50):
A lot of people have reachedout to me from other places in
the country or the world askingif we're okay, because it's been
all over the news.
There's been people that I knowwho live in different parts of
(14:12):
the country, different parts ofthe world, who have reached out
to me to ask if we're okay andbecause you know this has been
all over the news.
But we're fine.
I can say that just what Iobserve about my fellow Los
(14:33):
Angeles neighbors is thateveryone has been on edge.
Everyone's been just a littlecuckoo.
I was at Home Depot the otherday when one of these emergency
evacuation orders came throughour phones but it was done in
(14:56):
error and so everybody in thestore had a phone and
everybody's phone went off withthis you know crazy beeping
noise, and it said there's anevacuation order for your area
and I think everybody was justso on edge you know that it was.
(15:20):
It's just too much.
And to have the evacuationorders anyway but then to learn
that they're going out bymistake, it's like everyone's
just had enough anyway.
It's really nerve wracking.
Everybody's just trying to getthrough.
(15:41):
Home Depot that day did not havea flashlight to sell me or an
air purifier.
I was looking for one.
I didn't really need aflashlight.
I have flashlights but I justthought I'd pick up an extra one
.
But I thought I'd pick up anextra one because I was thinking
that the power might go offagain.
(16:03):
It hasn't, but they were allout.
Home Depot's out of flashlights.
I'm sure they've rectified thatsituation.
I went to the market becauseDoorDash and Grubhub aren't
delivering even now.
We're you know we're what?
Uh, friday, thursday, friday,saturday, sunday we're four days
(16:27):
out from the evacuation orderbeing lifted.
Uh, they will not deliver to usin our area.
So if you want food, you haveto go out and get it yourself,
which is fine I mean, it's firstworld problems but it just
makes things a little bit moredifficult If you're working or
(16:48):
you have things that you have todo.
It's just a little bit moredifficult.
I did go to the market one ofthose first days and I was
trying to get water.
Well, I didn't really needwater, but I thought I'd pick up
some water and there was nowater, no bottled water to be
had, because the water qualityin Pasadena.
They told everybody that, um,you had to use bottled water.
(17:10):
It wasn't the.
The tap water was not safeanymore.
So, uh, yikes, that just makesthings more complicated.
I think what I've learned fromthis is that when I first moved
(17:33):
back here in 21 with Bill, I waskind of ambivalent.
I had a lot of issues with thishouse and it didn't always hold
good memories for me and itwasn't always comfortable.
(17:55):
It didn't make me comfortable,at least in the beginning, but
when I was faced with theprospect of leaving it and
losing it, I lost it.
I really did.
I just I started to really getupset and you know, bill was
(18:16):
watching me as I packed and Iwas going to start having a
meltdown and he said it's goingto be okay and I, you know I,
had to pull it together and so Ithink what I've learned is that
, you know, this is my home andI do appreciate it.
(18:39):
And if that's what my mom wastrying to tell me, they always
tell you that your loved oneswho have passed are watching out
over you and trying tocommunicate and helping you
along.
I don't know if my mom would behelping me, but I posted on
(19:06):
Facebook that day that I, youknow, I know she loved me.
I just don't know that shealways liked me.
I think that's a prettyaccurate representation of our
relationship.
But in the time that's gone bysince she's passed away, I think
(19:28):
I've come to respect her alittle bit more and appreciate
her a little bit more, eventhough she oftentimes acted like
she didn't like me.
But that's okay, because Iunderstand that she didn't
always.
I always understood that shedidn't have the easiest life and
I probably didn't make it anyeasier for her, but anyway, it
(19:54):
is what it is.
So we're okay.
We hear that the winds arecoming back, maybe not as strong
, but we hope for the best.
We pray for our neighbors.
We pray for our neighbors.
We are strong here in LA and welove our town and we'll all get
(20:21):
through this.
I took some supplies over tothe Humane Society and it was
amazing to see the outpouring ofsupport that they received.
Next day they said, okay, stop,we have enough, thank you.
And there's been these pop-updonation sites where people have
accepted clothing and suppliesand all sorts of things, and
(20:42):
they've gotten to a point wherethey've said, okay, enough,
we're overrun, but there are somany people that have been
displaced and we're fortunatethat we, that we were not
displaced.
La is very strong and I'm proudto be living here amongst all
(21:03):
these people.
And you know I won't get intoany of the reasons why this
happened, but it really was theperfect storm.
The winds were justunbelievably, ridiculously
strong.
A lot of people did stay andtry to use their garden hoses,
(21:25):
which really reduced the flow ofwater, the water pressure that
was available to thefirefighters, and there were
just so many fires in so manyplaces that I just don't think
there was a way for them tofight every fire and to save
every house.
(21:45):
I think the firefighters thatwe have have done an amazing job
of saving structures and, ofcourse, saving lives.
In the past I've seen it timeand time again.
There's just so much happening.
(22:06):
This time it just wasn'tpossible and it's very sobering
and I hope that we're on thetail end of it.
I hope that the fires are goingto start to be more and more
controlled and it's not going tostart up again.
That's my hope.
I took those supplies to theHumane Society and I was
(22:28):
thinking about there was thisguy that they found and they
interviewed.
On the news there's been allthese remote interviews where
all the news personnel they'reout in the street or they're at
this fire station, and this onegal was talking to a National
Guard member who had driven, Ithink, from Arizona or Nevada or
(22:51):
something and he had seen thefires on the news and he decided
to drive here and help us,which was great, and he said
that he was a sergeant but hewas going to be a private today.
He was a sergeant, but he wasgoing to be a private today and
(23:16):
he said that he had heard aquote from Jimmy Carter that he
thought was very appropriate.
It was you can't help everybody, but everybody can help someone
.
And that was what he was goingto do and he said right now,
somebody is losing their homeand they need help and I'm here
to help do whatever I can.
It's so true, we can't helpeverybody, because the need is
(23:40):
so great, but everybody can dosomething.
When I went to the HumaneSociety, that's what I felt like
I could do something that day.
I can't make a financialcontribution to all the GoFundMe
pages that I see, but I can doone or two or five or something.
(24:04):
I can't do hundreds of them,but I can help some of them.
That's great.
So everybody can do something.
Everybody can help someone.
So it's something good to thinkabout.
With that, I'll leave you.
That's all I've got for today.
Folks, next week we'll tackleanother topic together.
(24:28):
Next week we'll tackle anothertopic together.
I hope you'll join me.
If you like this episode,please follow the Only Child
Diaries podcast on ApplePodcasts or other platforms you
might listen on and considerrating Only Child Diaries and
writing a review.
It helps others to find us.
Please share it with a friendyou think might like it as well.
(24:51):
Thank you, child Diaries.
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