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My Home, in Flames
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(Don't worry my home hasn't burned down, yet.)
The fire season started up so late this year I think we were almost lulled into thinking it had passed us by. It's been really dry out here, not including this last year there's been a drought over the previous three years. This last year was El Niņo which kept the precipitation up above drought levels, but didn't quite send the amount of water truly needed to keep the dryness from being dangerous.
The summer was more or less typical, but maybe not as dry as usual and Santa Anas stayed put for a little longer than usual. Normally they start whipping up in mid to late September, not late October.
And while there's just no accounting for stupid people, it is somewhat odd to me that the fires have come so large and so numerous, so late in the season.
Apparently, though, the forests have been dealing with a beetle infestation that was promoted by the dry conditions. The beetle infestation has caused trees to dry out even more and die in dangerously high numbers. So on top of the tinder created by dry years, we also had hundreds of acres of dead and dying trees adding to the tinder.
I love my home, Los Angeles, southern California, the Southland, whatever you want to call it. And I take it very personally when people badmouth it (if you haven't noticed). Fire is integral here, even when it's some stupid fuck tossing a cigarette butt out of a speeding car or firing off a flare in Angeles Crest.
But this has been pretty terrible. According to the latest news 13 people have died, nearly 300 homes lost and the entire Los Angeles basin has been coated in ash for the past three days. The sun appears like a blood stain behind brown clouds and it's dangerous to breath.
My car doesn't have an air recycle option, and it's been so warm the past couple days that my options have been either to close the vents and turn off the air (and suffocate) or leave the vents open and try not to choke on the ash that makes it through my filters.
I can only assume this is what goes with the local climate/geography/nature. Other places get freezing winters, hurricanes, tornados, torrential rain and killer heat. While it can get fairly hot in August, it doesn't stay that way for very long. You can pretty much forget about the rest. So we don't have to deal with raining locusts or flooding rivers or any of that crazy crap you other people deal with.
But we do have fires. Every year. It's part and parcel of living here. To live here one must accept that and prepare for it.
This is a bad place for asthmatics. It shouldn't take the AQMD nattering on about Alerts to know that. If you have to live here (and you KNOW I think "have to" is just plain bullshit) get a mask. A normal two dollar surgical mask you can get at any drugstore. Keep your inhaler on hand, and have an extra cannister ready to go between September and mid-November.
It might be hard to convince kids to stay indoors, but school just started. You should be keeping a closer eye on them anyway. Bad habits in the early part of the year have a nasty way of throwing off the rest of year.
Codgery old folks? I'm sorry, you're on your own with that one. There's no telling them what to do, so keep the iron lung ready to go when they collapse.
The hardest one is probably animals. I've never had pets of my own. My sister had a myriad of goldfish, lizards and rabbits, my dad has three birds and my middle brother has little frogs. Molasses has his snake. I'm just not much of a pet person and sometimes I think not allowing an animal its feral instincts can be as cruel as beating it or leaving it to its own devices in weather conditions not fit for a human. Take care of your pets dammit. If you don't want to ever have them inside your house, don't fucking take any pets. Sheesh.
There's still smoke in the air and my car is currently the most filthy thing on the road. It was already fairly icky before and now it has a solid quarter inch of dirt that won't even get dislodged by freeway driving. But there's no point in washing it until the smoke clears.
Which won't before next weekend, at the earliest.
The fire season started up so late this year I think we were almost lulled into thinking it had passed us by. It's been really dry out here, not including this last year there's been a drought over the previous three years. This last year was El Niņo which kept the precipitation up above drought levels, but didn't quite send the amount of water truly needed to keep the dryness from being dangerous.
The summer was more or less typical, but maybe not as dry as usual and Santa Anas stayed put for a little longer than usual. Normally they start whipping up in mid to late September, not late October.
And while there's just no accounting for stupid people, it is somewhat odd to me that the fires have come so large and so numerous, so late in the season.
Apparently, though, the forests have been dealing with a beetle infestation that was promoted by the dry conditions. The beetle infestation has caused trees to dry out even more and die in dangerously high numbers. So on top of the tinder created by dry years, we also had hundreds of acres of dead and dying trees adding to the tinder.
I love my home, Los Angeles, southern California, the Southland, whatever you want to call it. And I take it very personally when people badmouth it (if you haven't noticed). Fire is integral here, even when it's some stupid fuck tossing a cigarette butt out of a speeding car or firing off a flare in Angeles Crest.
But this has been pretty terrible. According to the latest news 13 people have died, nearly 300 homes lost and the entire Los Angeles basin has been coated in ash for the past three days. The sun appears like a blood stain behind brown clouds and it's dangerous to breath.
My car doesn't have an air recycle option, and it's been so warm the past couple days that my options have been either to close the vents and turn off the air (and suffocate) or leave the vents open and try not to choke on the ash that makes it through my filters.
I can only assume this is what goes with the local climate/geography/nature. Other places get freezing winters, hurricanes, tornados, torrential rain and killer heat. While it can get fairly hot in August, it doesn't stay that way for very long. You can pretty much forget about the rest. So we don't have to deal with raining locusts or flooding rivers or any of that crazy crap you other people deal with.
But we do have fires. Every year. It's part and parcel of living here. To live here one must accept that and prepare for it.
This is a bad place for asthmatics. It shouldn't take the AQMD nattering on about Alerts to know that. If you have to live here (and you KNOW I think "have to" is just plain bullshit) get a mask. A normal two dollar surgical mask you can get at any drugstore. Keep your inhaler on hand, and have an extra cannister ready to go between September and mid-November.
It might be hard to convince kids to stay indoors, but school just started. You should be keeping a closer eye on them anyway. Bad habits in the early part of the year have a nasty way of throwing off the rest of year.
Codgery old folks? I'm sorry, you're on your own with that one. There's no telling them what to do, so keep the iron lung ready to go when they collapse.
The hardest one is probably animals. I've never had pets of my own. My sister had a myriad of goldfish, lizards and rabbits, my dad has three birds and my middle brother has little frogs. Molasses has his snake. I'm just not much of a pet person and sometimes I think not allowing an animal its feral instincts can be as cruel as beating it or leaving it to its own devices in weather conditions not fit for a human. Take care of your pets dammit. If you don't want to ever have them inside your house, don't fucking take any pets. Sheesh.
There's still smoke in the air and my car is currently the most filthy thing on the road. It was already fairly icky before and now it has a solid quarter inch of dirt that won't even get dislodged by freeway driving. But there's no point in washing it until the smoke clears.
Which won't before next weekend, at the earliest.
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