Ah yes, the joys of summer in sunny, dry and hot Southern California. On Thursday I was all set for another 20-mile bike ride after work. It's typically a little hot around 4:30 p.m., but it usually doesn't smell like fire!I guess it's a smell we are going to have to get used to here. This view from our apartment balcony is a fire blazing just south in the mountains. Naturally, I sat out on the patio with a drink and book and watched the whole thing unfold. All I needed was some marshmallows and graham crackers. The photo doesn't really give the size of fire much justice. If you look closely after you click on the image to expand it, you will see a helicopter just above the smoke line. That should help put the size into perspective.
I was amazed at the efficiency of the firefighters here. This fire raged in 95-degree temps for two hours. That's all the time it took for the helicopters and planes to put out the fire looking to advance in the dry brush. The foam phosphate does an amazing job retarding fires. I tried to snap a few pics of the planes dumping but my lens was maxed out, the smoke made them grainy and they pretty much sucked. This mountain is about five miles southwest of us.
The fire consumed about 125 acres in two hours time. Needless to say, the air quality here in the "valley" wasn't ideal for a hard bike ride so I had to shelve that plan for the day.
Other than that, Tracy and I had a great holiday weekend together. We were able to watch another type of fire from the porch on Saturday as two fireworks shows were visible from our balcony. Pretty ideal for us. No fighting crowds or traffic and the drinks were cheap! But we didn't completely cheap out. We managed to make a stop at a couple of wineries on Saturday for some tasting. We had another glass at Leonesse Cellars, which is by far the best winery we have found here so far. They have good reds and whites, which is a rare find here for some reason.
On Sunday we made our first stab at beer can chicken on the grill and it turned out really well. After 90 minutes the bird was ready and I was impressed we pulled it off for our first time. Tracy did the preparing and I did the grilling. I really, really didn't want to mess up my half of the duties. Bet that chicken never thought it would end up in our grill with a beer can up its ass!
Today (Monday), I took in another solid bike ride and am thoroughly enjoying an extended holiday weekend as KTM gave us Friday and Monday off. I feel like I'm the only one out there with Monday off too. Tracy wasn't as lucky.
