Today has been tumultuous.

Less than 48 hours ago, the Line Fire started at the base of the mountain, a few miles south of my house. I've been keeping an eye on it, but while it was growing rapidly, it was still a good distance away.

This morning, I discovered that one of my books is a semifinalist for the Kindle Book Awards. This is the thirteenth year of the awards, and the winner the first year was the basis for Apple TV's series The Silo. I'll find out on October 1st if I made it into the finals, and the winners will be announced in November.

Then I discovered that the fire had spread from 750 acres to more than 7000 acres in less than 24 hours. And my water heater sprung a leak, too.

After getting through our appointment for COVID and flu shots, I was able to fix the leak by replacing a $3 part, which thankfully took about 15 minutes. Megan and I then began packing up anything that we felt was irreplaceable, knowing it was just a matter of time before the evacuation order would come.

As we finished loading the car with photo albums, framed family and wedding photos off the walls, clothing, toiletries, pet supplies, laptops and portable hard drives, a cookbook with my late grandmother's family recipes, important documents, our pets and finally ourselves, the alert came through on our phones. We had jumped over the evacuation warning and straight to evacuation orders. The fire had continued its spread, and jumped across the highway leading up the mountain. There were other routes that we could take, but the direct route was now closed.

We're staying at my mother-in-law's house, an hour's drive away. I don't know if our house will still be standing when we're allowed to return.