Through the Fire

For those who don't know, the early part of our week was spent bounced from house to house and hotel to hotel as the Buckwheat fire threatened our house and of course those of our neighbors. Long story short, a distant cloud of smoke turned into a very present and surrounding cloud of smoke and ash in the matter of about 10 minutes. 10 minutes after that, we were ordered to leave and ten minutes after that flames were visible on the top of a hill that ends about 100 yards from my house. The fire would eventually burn the entire hillside, but it stopped there thanks to some smart controlled fires and what must have been an airborne dump of water, which must have been something to see (my more fearless neighbor has much of this on video).

So we split up into two cars, mom and kids in one and dad and dog in the other and both filled with a mishmash of those things that we deemed irreplaceable. Apparently this didn't include socks, underwear or a second shirt, but that's another story. It's interesting that when faced with the prospect of loosing everything, and I'm a bit of a collector of things- cookbooks, computers, kitchen gear, regular books, CDs, etc., you desire to take almost nothing. I went with our two most recent computers (the digitized collection of media makes these escapes much easier in the modern era) some old photos and some old 8mm film. The kids grabbed a couple of toys and that was about it.

After being stuck in traffic for a good hour, we had a semi-sane dinner and made way to my Mom's house, on the other side of the valley, a good 15 miles away. She lives on the top of a hill on an acre of mostly dry brush in view of the moutains that gave off a new glow that night as well: a completely separate fire was making a halo around the ridgeline and burning mountainside after mountainside in a deliberate push toward civilization. A few hours later, with Allison and the kids already asleep in a half-filled former bedroom, we were evacuated from there as well.

Luckily we found a hotel that night and things only got worse in general the next day as the fire threatened more and more homes and people, leaving some burnt and destroyed, we were able to find a hotel for the next night, just in case. We returned to home on Wednesday with everything just as messy as we left it, but without a sign of damage. Close one.

With permission, I'm posting a couple of pictures I found on flickr by a guy named Josh Converse who took these pictures just around the corner from my street. These almost perfectly sum up the feeling in the moments just before things got really bad.




I haven't obtained permission to re-post these photos, so I'll just link to them. You can see some early progression of the fire closest to my house here and here.

Heck of a job

You can't make this stuff up: FEMA stages a fake news conference with its own employees posing as reporters asking canned questions.

Is Donnie McClurkin the next Sister Souljah?

Longtime Public Enemy fans like myself scratch their heads that in 2007, Chuck D is a name consigned to history (sadly), Flava Flav is the biggest reality star on cable TV today and the name Sister Souljah is an enduring political term that just may outlive all of us.

Barack Obama occupies an odd space in this campaign that doesn't square with preconceived notions. He is the most outwardly religious candidate amongst all major candidates on either side, and yet he is arguably the most liberal candidate under serious consideration.

A few months ago, Rick Warren invited Obama to speak at his church, despite some disagreements on policy and he took a lot of heat for it, from the right. Lately, Obama has been taking a lot of heat from the left for his plans to include gospel singer Donnie McClurkin in some upcoming campaign events in South Carolina, despite their disagreements on some of the same issues.

As both an owner of at least one Donnie McClurkin album and a current supporter of Barack Obama, I was heartened to see this post bring some perspective to the issue by comparing the quotes of Warren's critics (and critics of his critics) during the initial controversy to those flying around the internet about the current controversy:

Read Barack Obama’s “Rick Warren Moment”

Requiem for The Boss

Looks like the early moves by the next generation of Steinbrenners will set the Yankees on the course to being one of the most spectacular over-bloated disasters in pro sports. We can only hope.

While I dislike Steinbrenner's style- sort of like the Bill Gates of old, looking to bully his way into world domination while exhibiting an unfortunate lack of taste or innovation, preferring to take the best features of his competitors; he fits the mold, generally, of the best sort of owner.

A team is best served by a businessman who is smart enough to be able to make some money, better still through innovative methods, yet unaccountable to a bank or a boss or shareholders so that he may get emotional from time to time and spend the extra buck to complete the puzzle. Think Arte Moreno or Mark Cuban (one that would re-sign Steve Nash, I mean), maybe the Jerry Buss of old.

Types of owners not good for teams:
Heirs
Over-leveraged debtors
Reclusive billionaires
Public corporations

Silver lining

After a week of evacuations and bouncing from place to place, we had a nice mini-vacation lined up this weekend that I've really been looking forward to. Look like that may be down the tubes due to the madness in San Diego. Let's hope not, but if we are stuck at home, at least we'll be getting a new cat. A Leopard, no less.