But knowing is better...

My son and daughter think that I am the most well prepared, anal retentive human they know. They might be right. That attention to preparedness and detail failed me as I went to bed on Sunday night with no plan to evacuate the house in case the wildfire hit Rancho Bernardo.

As I wrote earlier, we escaped with little.

I even forgot my asthma medicine.

A newscaster announced that RB residents were being allowed back into their homes to retrieve medicines. Not knowing the drill we loaded up the Jeep and the sedan and drove to our home, figuring that a police cordon in front of our development could be easily breached with a driver's license. The police had other, and better ideas. They have the major roads into residential areas cordoned off at key choke points. No one is allowed to walk through the neighborhoods. Instead you collect at the Holiday Inn on West Bernardo Drive and do the Disneyland snake line waiting your turn to be escorted to your home.

After a two-hour wait, made pleasant by meeting and greeting neighbors and making new pals in line, Lynn and I hopped into the backseat of a patrol car and were driven to our house.

We drove past the strip mall that is being used as the RB command center, and the location that Matt Lauer interviewed the Governator this morning. About twenty pieces of equipment were ready to be staged and but on the line, the firefighters enjoying a short respite from their valiant round-the-clock battles. We turned left on Escala and dipped into the canyon, blackened on both sides by the fire, as was Battle Mountain. Miraculously we did not see a single home along Escala or in the foothills that suffered any damage. We crossed Pomerado, made the two quick right turns and saw the house. Intact. As was the entire cul de sac. We had five minutes. I grabbed the medicine, some clothes, fed the cats on the ground floor. Lynn sprinted in, fed the cats upstairs (yeah, we could have communicated a little better) and tossed a new tee-shirt into the bag.

I also retrieved a canopy from the garage.

We were driven back to the Holiday Inn. With the aid of three young Hispanic teenagers, I put the canopy together, and left it, providing some of San Diego's finest a bit of shade.

By the way, we also saw and had a short conversation with Congressman Duncan Hunter. While he comes across as a pretty tough guy, you could see the pain and enormity of the fire etched into his face. And we're not even in his district.

So, the good news is that the house is currently standing. The cats are freaked but alive and we're back in La Mesa mooching off my buddy, Jerry.