"Use the Force, Luke!"

First of all:  WE ARE OKAY. 

There is much more smoke in the air today and lots of ash raining down and we can still see plumes of black smoke from where we are.  But our home is NOT in any immediate danger. We haven't had any personal losses for which we're incredibly grateful.  Thanks to all of you who have expressed concern.  It's comforting to have you praying.

But we've been grounded all week and we're starting to get cabin fever.  But going outside spells insta-headache.  (sigh)

What to do?

We went down to the local Disaster Relief station to see if we could help. 

We couldn't. 

Apparently they only use "professional volunteers" - which I think means people connected to other volunteer groups and not just stray Cubans wandering in out of the smoke.  ;-)
(I guess it's important to have FEMA training to hand out water bottles with an empathetic look on your face, but that's not important right now.)

So we hung out a little longer hoping to get a glimpse of President Bush and the Governator and their entourage. (Yes.  I know.  It's just that I really get a big kick out of the way he says, "Cowifoenya." =D)  That didn't happen either.  No stand-up governmental comedy for me today. The big-wigs are all in San Diego. (sigh)

So I guess that means we're still grounded. (grumpy, fussy sigh)   We'll just have to stay at home and sit quietly and not breathe and just twiddle our thumbs and wait for email alerts and hope we don't get a "reverse 9-1-1 call" to evacuate and that way we have more time on our hands to worry about what's happening all around us.  Pretty much what we've been doing all week anyway.

The Environmental Protection Agency suggests that with the worsening air quality we should wear masks if we really have to be outside.

Jonathan says, "Masks? REALLY??  I have just the thing!"