I miss my house

At least the fire couldn't ruin the view. See that shiny patch in the distance? It's the ocean.

Disneyland Fireworks

One thing about my house. If you hear a booming noise at 9:35pm, it's not the kids. It's not the neighbors. It's not a sonic boom. It's Disneyland. Exploding fireworks. Not usually a problem unless I'm trying to get to bed early. The air was particularly clear Sunday night and I grabbed the camera and ran outside. The pics came out better this time because I rested the camera on the balcony rail instead of holding it. I gotta remember that trick!

I had to laugh

I had a laugh when I saw that the tree fell because what goes around comes around. DH and I were happy to see that a tree died in our neighbor's yard last year. It was a large pine tree and was growing up to begin to block our view of Orange County and the Ocean/Catalina Island. The tree seemed to go completely brown overnight. It was eventually removed. I have never complained to them about their trees.

The neighbors on the other side have actually talked to me about this tree that fell, trimming it on their side of the fence (no problem) and sending their guys over to my side to top it so they could enhance their view. I allowed all that, but asked that the canopy-like structure of the tree remain intact because the tree shades the pool/jacuzzi in the summer and my children have sensitive skin. It is important to me that the kids can swim and play without the sun blazing on their lily white skin. So I imagine that the neighbors are cracking the champagne bottles about now. The small part that is left of the tree (which had a split trunk, or was two separate trees to begin with) shades the jacuzzi, which is good because the kids swim there around 80% of the time. I remind myself that the only thing that is constant in life is change. I gotta get used to it.