October 2003, somewhere in Orange County, CA
The sky was orange and raining ashes, the air was thick with smoke, there was no food or transportation and Ah-nuld was governor.
Yeah, the fire at Rancho Cucamonga is many miles inland but because of the Santa Ana winds we are getting the fallout at the beach. The ash not only covers everything in white and gray soot but it "seeds" the marine layer causing fog which then captures more ash. The dew on cars has turned into a pasty goo of wet ash that dries into a cast-like thing and sloughs off in little sheets. The fresh stuff flies around when you drive and when you open the car door it all swirls in. The air stinks and makes your eyes and sinuses burn; I'm wearing a dust mask outside and people don't even seem to notice. Maybe I can work it into a Halloween costume but maybe it’s not weird enough—everybody’s starting to wear them.
The weirdest thing though is the light. It's just wrong. It's very dark here--imagine 7pm light at 10am in the morning, but the angle of the light is 10am--that screws with your brain. And it's orange which somehow makes the traffic lights look purple and people keep running the lights because they can't remember if the top purple one is green or is the bottom purple one?
I am waiting for the one-eyed dude wearing heavy artillery to show up but maybe he's already in Sacramento trying to resolve the mass transit strike. I am hoping he will bring diet tonic water which cannot be found anywhere due to the grocery strike. Gin and diet Shasta grapefruit soda isn't that bad though.
Comments