A Strange Day

Yesterday started with the discovery of a water leak in one of the pipes in the kitchen ceiling. I had heard a very weird hissing sound the night before but could not figure out where it was coming from. By morning, it was clear that it was water hissing out of a pinhole leak in one of the pipes. The walls and ceiling were now full of water. Yikes. To add insult to injury, we couldn't find the water main which was not good! Fortunately the water department has an emergency line so they were able to help us get the water turned off. The plumber who had done the work in the house came at 11.00 that morning and by noon the whole thing was fixed. Except of course, the cosmetic repairs. The cross that did emerge was quite fascinating! I would've been much more freaked out about this had I not lived through the reno. I now know that anything can be repaired and made to look brand new! Still, we are so thankful that we were home. Visions of this happening while we were in Minnesota or worse yet, after we'd moved to London caused me to shudder. The damage is minimal and will be easily repaired. The only scary thing is that there is no way to know why something like this happened since the pipes are copper and fairly new. One thing that I did think about however is that California is in the midst of the huge drought and water just poured into our ceiling all night. Can't wait to see our water bill for this month. Ugh.

In more serious news, the mountains that surround us, Big Bear, caught fire. It's a serious fire that is hard to contain. This morning's news is reporting that 10,000 acres have been affected. The drought has not helped these conditions. While we are surrounded by these mountains, we are in no danger from the fire. But the smoke from the mountains created an eerie, interesting afternoon sky for us. We decided to go take a look up on the ridge so Tanner jumped in the cart with us and off we went. We saw one of the coyotes that hang around the golf course, but Tanner didn't react, thank God.It was quite the wild sight up on the ridge and about as windy as I've ever experienced it. The the smoke covering the sun in such a way that caused it to glow bright red. You can see it in the photo if you look at an upward, left angle from the tall palm tree.

Over the mountains where the fire was the colors were something else while on the other side of the valley, the sky was mostly clear.
We couldn't even smell smoke last night but this morning when we got up, we noticed it right away. In fact, it's so smokey in the valley now that it actually hurts my eyes to go outside. Doug was going to play golf, but it was cancelled. And now the sky is fully covered in smoke and haze. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who are in harms way and of course, always, with the fire fighters who do such a great job fighting these intense forest fires.