Views from Medina Road

I have 2 or 3 items in work that I'm formating for posting this weekend, but will not actually post until sometime over the next week, from my hotel room in DC; this will give the impression to those who do not follow the website closely enough to be reading this blog, that even while I'm away, there is still a busy staff back at Locus Online HQ preparing and posting new material. These items include the interview excerpts from the November issue, and 1 or 2 or possibly even 3 reviews and/or essays. Before leaving, though, I do plan another New Books page, to go up Sunday afternoon. Not to mention the weekly bestsellers.

Today dawned bright and clear, all signs of wind-blown brush-fire smoke gone. This was not a good sign; it was a sign that the Santa Ana winds had kicked in, for the first time this season, blowing the Rancho Cucamonga smoke south rather than west. It means hot dry winds from the north, clearing the skies but parching the air, whirling spirals of fallen leaves along the city streets, setting the stage for additional threatening fires. Sure enough, by afternoon another huge pall of smoke arose to the north of here, from Simi Valley or Santa Clarita, though apparently not destructive enough to have made any of the major news reports.

Off now to a pre-Halloween neighborhood party; time to be neighborly.