California is once again burning. The news is full of the latest developments! The other day we had parked Gerry's car on the street (OK...that's another story). Like Brian says anything is a story!

Waking up early ( the windows are all open in our place) to the smell of burning. Concerning! Turn on the early early a.m. news. Yes, someplace miles away it is burning but the Santa Anna winds are also blowing from the desert to the ocean through the canyons. When this happens the winds are blowing at 75 miles per hour. The trees in our neighborhood were doing some impossible movements for trees. More dramatic was the amount of ash the winds were carrying. Gerry's car parked outside on the street looked similar to a light dusting of snow....no...it was ash.

It was my morning to volunteer at the Getty Villa...the original place Getty had land and a home and his original museum copied after a Villa in a town near Pompeii. Here, in Herculaneum, when the volcano erupted in 69AD near to Pompeii, the Herculaneum town was covered in very similar ash and then later much worse. The ash was followed by molten lava and followed by rain. The Villa that Getty built for a museum was a copy of one in the community still covered completely and the only knowledge of it has been through crawl spaces....no longer used as the gases have become toxic

The atmosphere looked that morning as I went to volunteer just like it must have looked at first in 69AD. OK....as a volunteer I give talks to school kids who have been bused in (many Title I schools where the kids can be underprivileged....many have never see the ocean.....and the Getty funds their visits.from bus to lunch to guided tours)

Bus talk. back to me .. is to ad libbed from things each of us thinks is meaningful..depends on the age of kids and how far they have driven ( too far = shorten the talk as bathrooms are more important) But what an opportunity for them to personalize back to 69 AD and this being at that time a persons home...and the ash is falling...and there is confusion and concern and maybe even panic...

.one senior high student said " JESUS CHRIST" and I replied right on!.....this was prior to Jesus Christ and further more the oldest piece of art work at the Villa is 8000 years old and the youngest is 500 years old.

This student ,looking much like a gang member, ( low pants....chains...supper slick attitude)came up to me prior to leaving and said " Pat, (I was surprised as many never even remember you name) He said"I was not interested in coming but it has made me think that history is huge and I can either try to make a difference or I can just hang......I want to make a difference and I am gonna talk with my mom about all this stuff. Maybe we can come back with my little brother. I want him to see stuff differently.

SO......I finally felt like I did have something to write about. KIDS ARE OUR FUTURE!