Happy News with a Heavy Heart

This week got away from me.    Tuesday was lost in the midterm elections and then everything started to hit the fan here in Southern California.

Wednesday night I went to watch a comedy I'd recorded.  I like to go to bed after a few laughs.  It lets me fall asleep with a smile.  But when the show ended and I went back to regular TV,  the news had interrupted whatever talk show that was on.  At that time all that was known was that there was a live shooter in the Borderline  Bar in Thousand Oaks. It was college night and filled with young people.

The TV station had their helicopter hovering over the area and I watched in horror as all different branches of law enforcement  arrived but didn't go in.  And then the facts began to trickle out as a reporter on the ground interviewed people who  escaped. 

I went to a tough high school where getting through the day unscathed was an achievement.  I thought danger was only there.  I never would have imagined how it has spread to envelop a bar and restaurant in a place like Thousand Oaks which was  declared the safest city in the country.

My son went  the Borderline when he was  in college.  It seems that all of his friends did, too.  It was the place to hang out.  Knowing that made it even more chilling and I shared the pain of the families who lost someone.

And then while that was still raw, the winds whipped up.  And in the same area a fire broke out and then not too far away another broke out.  The winds were so bad at night that they couldn't do any water drops so the fires just continued to grow and crossed the freeway.  People had to evacuate.  The last thing I saw said that 75,000 homes had to be evacuated.  I am out of the danger zone, but it is all familiar territory. 

The only positive is that now that it is light, the water drops should start.  But I can see the lime tree outside my window bending and dancing in the wind. Unless the winds die down, embers will continue to spread to the fires.

With all that going on I forgot that ON THE HOOK was released in paperback on Tuesday.  It is hard to feel excited about it with all  this loss going on so close by.