I wake up Sunday at around eleven in the morning. Or maybe it was noon. Whatever time it was, it was mid-day. I had finished one of my first closing shifts as a newly promoted Shift Leader, and not having to work again till Tuesday I was sure as hell gonna take it easy. I laid in bed for a little longer, watching some TV out of sheer boredom. I noticed the winds outside were blowing quite hard as the branches from the tree outside were slapping my window a bit.

I eventually got out to the car sometime at around two. Nothing unusual. Hopped about a couple of stores like Wal-Mart and Target, looking at the DVDs along the way to see if there was anything to add to the collection. Made a mental note about a title that I wanted to get that was on sale this week. Next, look to see if there was a buffet around that could eat at for my sole meal of the day. It was when I hit the always packed Home Town Buffet on Palomar and just off the I-5 when I noticed it. Tiny pieces of ash were falling. Guess some place was on fire. Would have to look into it. Went to the Godfather's Pizza on Broadway and Oxford. Nothing on the TVs mentioned anything about a fire, so I didn't think too much of it.

Didn't think too much of it the rest of the day and when I went to bed.

It was when I woke up Monday morning and turned on the TV did the fires really take shape. In San Diego, the two main fires at the time were Witch Creek and Harris. Harris was just due east of Chula Vista. The eastern portion of Chula Vista was made up of the Eastlake community. I lived in Eastlake Shores. So you could tell which fire I was paying attention to. My mom, who lives in Hawaii, called to see what was up. She also mentioned that dad was already in San Diego, which was news to me. Dad eventually called me up and we had dinner at the grandparents place while keeping tabs on the fires. I got back and started filling up the car with as much stuff as I could, ready to go in case I needed to evacuate.

I turned off the lights and looked to go to bed at midnight. Then I noticed that there was an orange glow outside my window. I opened the blinds and saw Mount San Miguel on fire. Oh boy. Mount San Miguel was not that far away from Eastlake. Eastlake Shores in particular. This didn't look good. I kept the TV on and was paying attention to the ABC affiliate, since they were the only ones who didn't shift away from the news for the night. I eventually feel asleep as my body required it.

Woke up Tuesday morning. Was not sure whether or not I was going to work, and since I was part of opening shift I really didn't know. I was getting ready to head out the door when the boss called to tell me work was closed for the day. So I stayed glued to the television, at this point the CBS affiliate since they were covering the Harris Fire more than the others at this point. A couple hours later, I watched as a line of fire was beginning to approach a neighborhood between Mount San Miguel and Eastlake Shores. I was prepared to bolt the second any sort of announcement would be made requiring me to evacuate.

Fortunately, no such message came. Instead, the television showed me helicopters beginning to make their water drops on the Harris Fire that began threatening the Eastlake areas. It was later noted that the costal winds came a lot earlier than previously forecasted and it allowed the choppers to make their runs. Fortunate smiled upon the eastern area of Chula Vista, thereby preventing the fire from touching any of the local neighborhoods. So another dinner was planned with my dad and my grandparents. We were going to the Mexican place near my place, but they closed for the day because of the fire so we went way down to the one just off the I-5. Once I got back, spent a great deal emptying my car. Once everything was out by midnight, I was sweating badly.

Wednesday wasn't all that fun in that my body ached, I had a huge headache, and I was closing shift that night. In fear of coming down with a fever, I made a run to grab some Advil. Thank God it helped at the very least eliminate the body aches and calm the headache before I started my shift. Because we closed on Tuesday, we knocked a vast majority of the late fees. I was supposed to be the only lead closing that night, but the boss dropped by because he had to fix up Monday's paperwork and set it apart from Wednesday. Aside from the more than usual customers, a normal Wednesday night.

And so, that's my story of the Harris Fire threat I faced. Didn't seem all that much, but believe me when I say my heart was racing that Monday night watching how much bigger the orange glow seemed to be getting at times. The packing of my stuff into the car and then having to take them out, while a pain physically, allowed me a chance to fix my room. Still working on it as I write this. I occasionally check out what's going on with the rest of Southern California to see how they're doing in containing the fires. Other than that, not much else.