Thanks for asking.  Bobby Hughes also lives just a few miles from me.  And Bob Darrah lives up by the lake.  He was packing things just in case they had to evacuate.  They could see the smoke from their balcony.  

So, yes, things are a bit tense, but we're all doing fine.  

A brief summary of this weekend's fires in/around Austin:  There is the Bastrop State Park fire that has burned 476 homes and 25,000 acres.  It is 0% contained at this time.  This is by far the worst fire burning at this time.  It is very sad, all the devastation and all.  It is quite a ways from where I live and also from where I keep my airplane.  Bastrop State Park has lots of very large tall pine trees.  It is next to impossible for the firefighting equipment to get in to where they need to be to fight the fire.  They're using helicopters and tankers to drop water on it.  The smoke is very thick and can be seen for many miles.

There's another fire burning in the other direction that has burned 24 very expensive homes.  Again, it is nowhere near where I live.  It is 25% contained.  The news said that it was caused by overloaded power lines.  

However, there is a fire that was reported to be 2 miles wide by 5 miles long that is not far from where I live, and high winds are blowing in the direction of our home.  A number of sub-divisions have been evacuated.  Fortunately, the firefighters now have it 100% contained.  So, I think we dodged another one.

There were two other fires in Pflugerville (N. Austin) yesterday that are now out.  Again, not close to where I live.  But all the fires have the state's resources stretched paper thin.  

The anxious part is that fires keep popping up all over central Texas.  Humidity is 4%, and there has been no rain in months.  So, everything is very very dry.  The whole area is a tenderbox.  

The news anchors are asking, "If you had ten minutes to grab whatever you could and leave your home, what would you take?"  That is a sobering thought.  Fortunately, we are OK. 

Again, thanks for asking.  

Thanks,

Mark