Yesterday Jean and I drove up through the pass to meet with our realtor so we could sign a big stack of papers. It stormed over night down here, but was barely drizzling when we left on Saturday morning. The roads were slick and most surface streets were flooded (I’ve mentioned before how poor the drainage systems are out here), and on our way up through the pass it looked strange because the clouds were really low and everything was dark and misty. About half way up everyone came to a stop and we noticed some black smoke coming up from the center lane in front of us. I told Jean to grab the camera and be ready to get some pictures just as a bunch of sparks shot way up in the air.
All the traffic was merging over to the far left, off the marked fast lane and into the shoulder against the concrete divider, or it was merging around to the right side on the soft shoulder. As we got closer we saw a big Ford SUV engulfed in flames in the center lane of the 15. A traffic guy in a yellow suit was standing way out in front of it and forcing traffic out of the way. I was a little worried that it may explode, and Jean was trying (unsuccessfully) to get some good shots. The entire front of the SUV was a huge fireball, and even though we were about 20 feet away when we passed by it, you could literally feel the heat. We smelled burning tires for the next 2-3 minutes as we made our way up the hill.
We met with the realtor and then went over to see our home again. I was a little concerned that our entire lot was flooded, so I took some pictures and plan on emailing them to the builder so they’re aware of our concerns. We put on hard hats and walked through our framed home. It was odd because our home is flipped the opposite direction of the model, so it was hard to envision how things would look after we’ve been checking out the model so many times.
On the way back to our car Jean sunk one of her legs about 8-10 inches down in the mud. She was pretty upset and as usual, I was to blame… Anyhow, we went to Sonics for lunch and then she was happy. We came on back home and soon after that my dad came up to spend the night. Jean went out to Redlands to shop for drape patterns at a fabric store, and I watched movies with my dad. We stayed up pretty late.
Today Jean ran errands and I did some at home. My dad stuck around to watch the Super Bowl, but Jean had to go to work this evening. I was glad the Saints won, but I didn’t really care either way.
This week will hopefully be a little slower than last week because I was exhausted after two weeks of things being crazy at work and then dealing with the home purchase when I’d get home. Next weekend should be cool though because a huge travel show is coming to the LA Convention Center, it’ll be Valentine’s Day, and I have Monday off for President’s Day.
Here are a few pictures from the weekend:
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Holy Smoke – that car really was burning! You really do have a lot of windows…does Carolyn have that sewing machine set up?