Nerves are on edge during fire season on the west coast.
Californians track where fires are active, stay in touch with friends, pray, and wonder how anyone can deny the worsening impact of climate change. We also ponder the interface between nature, wilderness, where and how we build, and our methods of forestry and fire control. We also live with the impact.
The frame above is the top of an umbrella on our front deck. It is ash from the Dolan Fire which is raveging our beloved Big Sur, less than an hour up the Pacific Coast Highway.
It is better today, but we've experienced an ash fall that has coated the central coast and made the air unfit for outdoor activity.
Above-ash particles captured in spider webs. Below-on our deck surface.
We've had ash in previous years, but not to this extent, even a couple of years ago when the Chimney Fire threatened the famed Hearst Castle just 6 miles from here.
This ash fall is a minor thing. Lives have been lost, communities and homes destroyed, daring helicopter rescues have been necessary and thousands of fire fighters risk their lives in California, Oregon and Washington.
Like many others, I spent time today in line at the car wash.
On trip number one my granddaughter thought of the experience as a kind of ride. It was her first, and we passed the time in line looking at old movie clips. She told me about an Adam Sandler movie Transylvania, where he is "Drac-lee-a" so I introduced her to Bela Lugosi. "Old time movie Drac-lee-a is not nice, is scary" she said. The "ride" diverted her attention, she and her mother had been fretful about the ash.
The second visit offered time to check email and read a couple of articles.
Since last week's heat wave, we've been lucky to have overnight fog and cooling temperatures. Anything of that nature is a blessing, here and to those in the fire zones.
A man from LA who came north to escape smoke, said on our local NPR station, "the sky looks like something from a Batman movie."
If only all of this was just special effects.
September and October on the Central Coast can be spectacular and pristine and each day is like a jewel. But there are times, when fires intrude, that we desire our internal clocks to speed away until rain season can begin.
When it is good, it is as good as it can be. But at times we do a dance with our nerves. And we are heartbroken by the news from elsewhere.
California grieves. The accounts and images of the hell of the Camp Fire in Northern California hit with such force as to knock the joy of life out of its fulcrum in our hearts. Our tears, depression, and abject sadness, as deeply as they are felt, are meager human echoes to the horrendous reality of those who lived and lost in Paradise and the surrounding area.
The emotional toll conspires to knock this beautiful state out of its natural orbit of nature, light, creativity and a zest for life full speed ahead. The Woolsey Fire complex north of LA has destroyed iconic sets, scenes, famous homes and dreamy enclaves. Hundreds of thousands are upended and live on the edge of uncertainty. Those who survive shudder to think of the loss of life and they way they died.
Somehow the sun shines less brightly. There is something that can and must be done-bury power lines. Trouble with lines are again the suspect in these fires. In a corporate calculus a board may reason it is too expensive. That is wrong. Talk has begun in California legislative circles that a private energy company, a monopoly, is no longer the model that works. Time for evolution, for safety's sake, for the people's sake. My friend Bob who writes the blog You've Got A Lot To Learn, found in the column to the right of this post, has written of his experience with the Ventura County fire.
a place away
Not far from here, tucked into a hidden cove, stands an old fishing hut dating to the early 20th century. The images are offered as metaphor for retreat, a place away from the complexity of these days.
but there is an accounting
the bill comes due
At this juncture I can't help but think of the Dylan lyrics "and it's a hard rains a gonna fall."
Add together these clips:
The US was horribly and embarrassingly "misrepresented" at the Armistice Day ceremonies in France.* The missed commemorative appearances will go down as some of the most offensive and despicable Presidential behavior in history, underscoring his unfitness.
The repudiation of this rogue administration is about to escalate. It is telling when the Fox News organization, a right wing propaganda voice for most of its broadcast day, has joined in the legal action against the dictator-like banning of CNN reporter Jim Acosta. Fox joins ABC, NBC, Associated Press, Bloomberg News, New York Times, Politico, EW Scripps, USA, Washington Post, First Look and others in trying to block this usurpation of press freedom.
This White House is also being sued for the appointment of a former shill of a fraudulent company and who is opposed to the Mueller probe, to be the Attorney General. Just contemplate that for a moment.
No administration in history has had so many guilty pleas and indictments of high ranking staff and cronies and more are on the way. Now the First Lady is making a list of staff who should be fired. All of this is preparatory to what will happen when the subpoenas and investigations begin when the Democrats take leadership of the House. It may feel like a swarm of hornets.
After watching and covering Presidents since 1965 I wonder if this man can hold up to the pressure of the onslaught. He is bloated, overweight, does not work out, has questionable sleeping habits and a furious temper. A major publication is out with an inquiry into his recent behavior and asking if there is something wrong with him.
Now that something is in place to challenge him, now that voters have tossed over some of the acquiescing sycophants, Donald Trump's life will be tougher than ever before. If he's got a breaking point, emotionally, politically or physically we may see it. The bill comes due sometime. And overarching all of this is the Mueller report, also due.
dollars but no sense
At a time when this White House and the Republican party is driving the national deficit to all time highs and busting the budget, one must note Trump is blowing as much as $220 Million on sending troops to the border, even though the experts, the Generals, the Pentagon tell him they don't see the "caravan" as a risk. He's sent 6000 troops and says he may raise it to 15,000. This President calls the caravan an "invasion." In fact his irrational behavior is a diversion, an attempt to work up his base, an appeal to his racist and xenophobic supporters. But it is racism and he undertakes it at a huge economic loss to the nation. It's almost like going bankrupt when you own a casino.
how much is too much?
Here's a money story that may blow your mind. Thanks to Bloomberg, Time Magazine, and Democracy Now we know that Amazon's Jeff Bezos was worth on May 1st $132 Billion. In January his worth was $99 Billion, so he's continuing to earn.
Here are the stats. He makes $275 Million a day, that is $11.5 Million an hour, $191 thousand a minute or $3,182 every second. The median salary for an Amazon employee is $28,000 a YEAR. Bezos makes as much in 3 seconds as he pays his employees for a year of work.
the asterisk footnote
*After watching his petulant appearances in Paris and hearing of his refusal to go to honor the fallen in Belleau Wood, or to take part in the multi nation march I thought a few Marines should grab him and give him a thrashing. Those 50 plus Republicans who served in previous Republican White Houses and who published the ad saying he was unfit and unqualified should have been listened to by their fellow party voters.
An eerie twilight and hushed nature shrouds the California central coast. A red-pink sun burns behind brown and gray clouds as the charred remains from Southern California drift northward in expanding smoke, arial evidence of the devastating fires.
Birds have grown silent and the abundant wild life, turkey, deer and squirrels have disappeared as the plume drifts northward over the Santa Lucia range.
Air quality alerts have been posted. People are urged to stay inside.
A somewhat clouded morning was absorbed by the smoke. This patch of blue disappeared in moments.
The usually lustrous light has fallen to a mournful shade. The clear day become brown and umber.
The pernicious Santa Ana winds whip the several fires, burning and destroying areas of an American paradise.
An LA Times headline notes "AS CALIFORNIA BURNS
CONGRESS PLANS TO SLASH TAX WRITE-OFFS FOR FIRES AND OTHER DISASTERS"
The gloom also extends to our hearts. This is a state
sending thoughts and prayers to fire fighters, fellow citizens, friends and loved ones.
The Sierras are their domain and they roam as they wish.
This is a young bear and not fully grown. He or she was rooting for a mid morning snack about 10 foot off the trail.
We encroach into their wilderness with our cleverness.
Still nature is the dominant component of the equation.
Normally good spirited and cheerful, Californians have been understandably heavy hearted the last two weeks.
The horror and fiery devastation has been cut into our psyche. We all have friends in Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and points north or south. We've read the heartbreaking accounts of loss of life and destruction of homes, businesses and life dreams. The loss seems incalculable and personal.
I was particularly taken by what Thomas Fuller, the San Francisco Bureau chief of the New York Times wrote.
From the NY Times CALIFORNIA TODAY
Thomas Fuller, the San Francisco bureau chief for The New York Times, describes his experience covering the fires in Northern California.
I keep a satellite phone in the trunk of my car, the same one I used to cover disasters and insurgencies in places like Myanmar and Nepal. But I never thought I would need it in Napa Valley, not for a wildfire anyway.
During a week spent covering the fires in Northern California, I fell back on my training as a foreign correspondent: finding the satellite on the smoky horizon, locking in the phone’s antenna and dictating paragraphs to patient editors.
But this was not a foreign land. It was my own country, and the conveniences that we take for granted had collapsed. Traffic lights went black and commerce shut down.
Streets that were normally filled with tourists in the charming towns of wine country were deserted except for crews of exhausted firefighters, sheriff’s deputies and a few reporters. In the evacuation zones, rows of destroyed houses made it feel like a country at war, emptied of its civilian population.
Small fires seemed to pop up everywhere. As I raced down narrow country roads to meet deadlines, I caught glimpses of smoldering embers on tree stumps a few feet away. I felt vulnerable while driving through tunnels of vegetation — it would be easy to be surrounded by fire and trapped.
Everything smelled of smoke: my clothes, my car, my bag, my fingers.
I feel enormously grateful to the dozens of people who took the time to articulate their grieving, some while standing in the rubble of their homes. The fires stripped away their privacy. Their kitchens, their exercise equipment, their hobbies — their lives — were in cinders at our feet.
I think back to meeting Lisa Layman, her azure eyes staring at the ashes of her home at Coffey Park in Santa Rosa. She was recovering from cancer and recently had a kidney removed. The night before, she had escaped with her Bible and a scrapbook of her son’s early years. That is all she had.
It is a reporter’s job to bring empathy to disasters like this. But I wondered how I could ever comprehend the magnitude of her loss.
There were all too many times when my assignments
put me at locations of devastation-tornados, floods, fires, explosions, hazardous waste derailing or leaks when I asked myself the same question. This week millions of Californians are mulling such.
#metoo
I'm not a fan of "piling on" when someone is down, but the #metoo response in the wake of Harvey Weinstein being taken down is healthy.
Though sadly delayed, by years, the news finally exposed Weinstein's loutish behavior. His fall from power and influence is stunning and appropriate. We are still waiting for justice for those women who donald trump sexually assaulted. We can hope another fall is in order.
Cambria Tennis Club play cancelled Monday because of strangeness on the courts. Locals haven't seen this substance for quite a while. Measurable rain in September! Remnants of a tropical storm delivering a small gift and we hope a signal of the rainy season which begins next month.
Glad to give up play for rain and oh how we hope some of this rain gets to the tragic fires burning upstate.
A Game of Love
In case you missed it, a real life fairy tail played out at the US Open Tennis Championship this weekend. Flavia Pennetta, ranked 26th defeated her life long friend and unranked player Roberta Vinci. That's the stat. As Chrissie Evert said, she's never seen such a happy scene after a match. Vinci came out of nowhere to upset the famed number 1, Serena Williams to get to the finals.
The charismatic and charming Italian women, roommates when they were young, wowed the tennis world with enthusiasm and delight. Upon being presented the US Open Trophy, Flavia announced that a month ago she had decided to retire at age 34.
It was her first major championship and she is the oldest US Open Winner. You can't make up a better story line. Hope you can get a chance to see video of Vinci and Penetta in the trophy presentation. Their smiles and antics will make you smile.
On the men's side the #1 Novak Djokovic beat #2 Roger Federer. I'm a fan of both men, but had hoped the 34 year old Fed could manage another win. He's won 5 but still plays with a grace and elegance that is unmatched. Even Djokovic said he's the greatest player of all time.
HEADS UP
We victims of traumatic brain injury pay close attention to the latest research on details of legacy affects. In the last couple of years we all have duly begun to pay attention the tragedy being inflicted on football players after years of serial concussions.
A good friend and one of the more studied and wise people I know says as "anti-American" as it may seem, it is time to outlaw football, until and unless it can be proved that new helmets and rules can prevent what is now common place-serial concussions and the damage they extract.
A couple of high profile NFL suicides has further opened the door on what is one of those obvious issues hiding in plain view. By the time a kid has played junior league, high school and college football, he has rattled his brain thousands of times. Will Smith stars in an upcoming film the NFL would like to see go away. We are told the story line has been tweaked a bit to soften the blow, but Concussion is on path to create a new public awareness-long overdue.
SUMMER COVE
sharing the water
One of the many Humpback Whales that have summered near the shore from Cambria to San Simeon.
Sea Otters have become cohabitants as well.
Tourists have taken to the San Simeon Cove too, sans wet suits. More evidence of the warmer than normal currents.
The incident in Arizona is tragic. A shooting instructor is dead and a 9 year old girl must live the rest of her life with the trauma of having killed a man. Tragic yes, but avoidable and criminally stupid.
There is something repugnant. Pay a couple hundred dollars and go from your hotel in Vegas to a shooting range where your child is given a chance to handle serious and obviously deadly weapons and then finish with hamburgers?Bullets and Burgers! Has the All American vacation come to this? What impression does that leave on a young mind?
Having used an Uzi and knowing the kind of power it possesses, I think it should never be put into the hands of a child for commercial purposes. I've been instructed by FBI firearms instructors and US Army trainers and state police trainers and know from personal experience that lethal weapons are meant to be handled and used in ways other than at a tourist shooting range where sissy or junior can fire away and eat a hamburger before going back to that cultural bastion of Las Vegas.
A friend wrote yesterday she thinks the parents should be charged with manslaughter. Maybe so. But certainly age limits should be imposed or perhaps the operation shut down entirely.
ALSO NOT SMART
That is smoke above the camp chairs, drifting into the 70 degree plus late morning temperature. It comes from the fire ring located immediately adjacent to bone dry grassland scrub near a forest suffering the third year of a drought. I can think of no sane reason the state of California permits open fires. That is more so during summer, especially in drought years. A careless act or a wayward ember could create a disastrous consequence. It happens.
I've enjoyed camp fires in California parks, but during winter, near a stream or the Pacific and never in a drought. Even then I thought the practice was foolish, deep in a forest or under majestic redwoods. The potential consequence is simply too much for a practice fraught with carelessness, inexperience and hazards.
Stupidity stalks us when you see a cigarette butt on a dry and dusty trail. It is rude when people drop butts in public places, but it is idiocy A) to smoke on a trail and B) to drop a butt near tinder like scrub in a drought. Duh! How can anyway not see the folly in that? As is obvious this offender failed even to stomp and mash the butt to assure no hot ash could be left to create a fire.
AND NOW, MORE PLEASANT DIVERSIONS
NOSTALGIC
ANOTHER THROWBACK
Indianapolis Raceway Park in the '70's. There was a time I'd jump at any chance to get in any racing machine.
On this day we were running hot laps, going for speed with no one else on the track. That was probably a good thing.
