Sunday, October 28, 2007

Burn, Baby Burn...




The wildfires have been raging for a week now, and it is absolutely scary how bad it is. The fires are both north and south of LA, and thousands of homes have been destroyed.

LA is (un)naturally hazy from the smog, but I can usually see downtown pretty clearly as I drive in in the morning, but on Friday the air was so nasty I could barely make out the skyscrapers as I drove in from Westwood, and it progressively got worse and worse.

By 11 am I could not see more than 200 feet away, and the air was thick with nastiness.

It was ashes from the fires around San Diego being carried in on the wind, and it was so bad that most of Orange County (South of LA) was shut down. The air quality was dangerous, as the ash being blown around was loaded with all the toxic stuff that had burned like paint, chemicals, drug dealers, etc.

Tens of thousands have been displaced, thousands have lost everything, and people have died.

And people will just rebuild. I don't get it. This many humans shouldn't be here anyway!

Next spring it will be mudslides, houses getting buried in tons of mud when the rains start in the spring.

And THE BIG ONE is coming any day now, right? The earthquake that ate California...

I am not trying to make light of the loss that so many people are experiencing right now, but for Christ's sake, there is NOTHING natural about 20 million people living in a completely artificial environment and not expecting bad shit to happen every now and then.

It's a desert! Stuff dies and get very dry! Very dry stuff burns! A lot! The first clue is that it is AGAINST THE LAW TO SMOKE IN ANY PUBLIC OUTDOOR RECREATION AREA IN ALL OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BECAUSE THE WHOLE GODDAMN PLACE IS A TINDER-BOX!!!

Despite my smartass sense of ironic humor at the whole thing, we will be doing our part to help the people that are left with nothing in the aftermath. After what we went through, I can relate to what it feels like to lose most everything you own. We want to help. Besides, despite all the potential ways to lose everything you own through some sort of calamity, I really do like it here, and I think I understand why they stay. It's a great place to live, if you don't mind maybe dying. But I guess that's a risk we take everywhere, huh? Just more choices in LA LA Land.

By the by-

I really, really hope they catch the bastard(s) that are responsible for the fire(s) getting started.

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