Goleta Gap Fire, Day 6

La Sumida Nursery in Goleta (near Patterson & Hollister Ave.) emailed me a couple days ago to tell me some miniature African violets I had inquired about earlier had come in. I told them to reserve four of them in assorted colors for me and my housemate, and it wasn't till today (Sunday) that I was able to get my housemate to drive me over there to pick them up.

It turns out the folks at La Sumida were very open to ordering a small set just for me, even though I had only communicated with them via email. I had stopped by earlier to pick up a standard size 4" starter African violet plant along with a special African violet pot, but they didn't realize I was the same person who had emailed the inquiry on the minis. I really like local nurseries; the people are nice and accommodating, and the prices are good for the quality of plant you are getting.

The nursery had ordered 6 plants total, and I decided to buy five of them, while my housemate decided to get 1, so we wiped them out of the special order minis. I'm going to bring 1 mini African violet plant into lab. Hopefully the lab environment will not kill it off, but we'll see.

I also bought a small bag of perlite and African violet potting soil, along with a small bottle of rooting compound/powder. My housemate and I want to try our hands at propagating these mini violets for future housewarming gifts.

Since the skies over Goleta have seemed a bit clearer over where I live (although still pretty bad for asthma sufferers), I became complacent over the problems the Gap fire could still cause.

For instance, my housemate and I drove from La Sumida to the Fairview Center to look for mini pots and saucers, and other gardening tools at the Michael's and the OSH. While at the OSH, the electricity went off two times, once for a short 5 minute period as my housemate and I were still picking through plant saucers, and the second time, for much longer, while my housemate and I WERE BOTH IN THE PROCESS OF CHECKING OUT. I mean, we had the totals and exact change (cash + coins) ready but they couldn't take our money without their computers on.

Once electricity went off this second time, the OSH workers blocked off the entrance to the store and tried to get small backup generators (which they also sold in the store, by the way) running to power checkout lines 1 and 2. My housemate, luckily, was at line 2, so I was able to bundle my order with hers without having to get into the back of the long line. I don't think I received too many ugly looks for "cutting" in; besides, my housemate didn't want to wait the extra 20 minutes or so for me to get through the line.

All the other stores at Fairview Center were in lockdown mode as well. Basically, store workers would round up people to get them to the front of the store, and block people from entering. Workers would try to encourage customers to leave the store with their shopping carts still filled and put into a line, but most customers were willing to go through the hassle of waiting.

Anyway the power outage lasted maybe another 30 minutes after we got back home. Then my housemate decided to make dinner early on our gas stove. That was fortuitous, since power went out AGAIN as she was making dinner. Thank goodness for gas stoves.