We were allowed back into our neighborhood over the weekend and were excited to find our poor wind battered and smoke damaged house still standing.

Naturally I brought back a daily typewriter, but it was eerie to see what I’d last typed on it two weeks ago just before we had to evacuate.

A Remington Standard typewriter sitting in the front seat of a car.

Typed index card that reads: 2025-01-07 Crazy winds kicked up this morning around 5:30AM and woke up both Sonia and I early. I went out briefly around 6:00 A to batten down the hatches and move the car out from under the tree. Evie was already up and working on her math homework. I'm really proud of her for this as well as going to bed at a reasonable time last night. The trip to school wasn't too bad this morning, though I did have to navigate around a Christmas thee that had blown into the middle of the street. Winds are supposed to be bad all day long. I'm sort of worried about going to class tonight at UCLA, but I suspect that winds there probably aren't as bad based on what Sonia has said about her drive into the office earlier

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Chris Aldrich

I'm a biomedical and electrical engineer with interests in information theory, complexity, evolution, genetics, signal processing, IndieWeb, theoretical mathematics, and big history. I'm also a talent manager-producer-publisher in the entertainment industry with expertise in representation, distribution, finance, production, content delivery, and new media.

6 thoughts on “”

  1. I’ve been silently waiting for an update and hoping for good news. I’m glad you and you loved ones were evacuated in time and are safe, and that despite the proximity of your home to the epicentre of the fire, it is still standing.

    Of course, I’m also glad the typewriters survived, and hopefully your cherished index card filing cabinets.

    Stay safe, and courage for the upcoming rebuilding and renovating.

  2. Good that you sustained relatively light damages. Still, seeing your city decimated like this is likely to alter your views on life itself – even more so for the young ones once they begin to absorb the magnitude of the carnage.

    The effect on the mind of seeing an area basically removed from the map, especially if one lives or works there, is not something that goes away in a week or two. There are ghosts of things vanished; your mind still tries to recreate them.

    I’ll be thinking of you and of the others affected. Glad you and your family are okay.

  3. Really relieved to hear that you and your family are OK. Can’t imagine what you’re going through seeing your community undergo this trauma… wishing you the best in the weeks and months to come as the process unfolds.

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