My City in Ruins

It started at 1:30 yesterday afternoon. Right by the golf course and the carousel. The fire in Griffith Park spread to within a mile of the LA Zoo and on the other side of the park to the Observatory. It's still going. Paxton walked outside and when he came back in, his fur was saturated with that acrid fire smell. I wandered out to see if there was anything to see, but not from my vantage point. Just a lot of smoke.

So I won't be running to work today. I won't be biking in the park as usual Wednesday night. Where the fire started was my favorite place to bike. It was shady and quiet and lovely. It smelled of pine and Eucolyptus, and ocasionally echoed with the laughter of children playing. I spent hours there last summer running and biking, and all the time thinking about what exactly I was supposed to be doing with my life as opposed to what I wanted to do with my life.

There was a giant plume of smoke rising up from the park yesterday which we watched from the balcony at work. But our view was mostly blocked by Trash Truck Hill, that massive hill which several of us have tried many times to run or bike up without a corinary.

600 acres have burned so far. The Zoo animals are OK, but they were not evacuated and couldn't be because of their size and that there is 1200 of them. It occurs to me that someone really should come up with a plan for that.

Almost every Wednesday night, as I was putting my bike back onto my car at dusk, I would see a single coyote trotting through the parking lot. Presumably to rumage through the Zoo garbage. Sometimes I would also see him along the trail. He looks like a skinny mutt. But cute one. Once, I saw him as I was driving. I slowed down to a very slow crawl pointing excitedly to no one that there was a coyote over there! Look! Over time I learned that it is in fact a very common site. No need to slow down at all.

I hope that coyote is safe tonight.