"FireStorm 2003" (cries the TV) Less than 2 miles from my house in fact... I can see the flames from my roof. I have all the tubs, buckets, trash cans and whatever on the roof and filled with water. Soaker hoses at the ready. If we loose the house I'm going to blame it on Maria's not letting me put in the fish pond (because it would supply more water, see?) I am going to get a small gas generator and a water pump just for next time. It actually turns out that only southern parts of I-15 are closed... my path north is unobstructed. The fire departments are totally swamped (poor choice of words, since they would love to be wet) and were not prepared for the scope of the situation. I heard that 150,000 acres, almost 300 homes destroyed, a university, and approaching 20 lives lost. But it looks like the flames are dying down as the wind calms. The power and water service is still up. All is... probably... well. I'm (much) more likely to die on the freeway. I have a neighbor (about 5 houses down) here in So Cal (on the opposite side of the USA from New York) who is a fireman and has had a big display in his front yard about the 911 victims and NYFD, etc.. since it happened. I just found out that his wife was killed in an auto accident some months ago... she is one of about 57,000 to die this year on the road. Less than 3,000 died in the WTC. But the sign is still about 911. And there is no light rail system up the I-15. In one of the R.A.H. books, Lazarus says something about people who have not learned math through calculus being less than human. I like the bit about the lottery being a tax on people who are bad at math. But worrying about 3,000 when 60,000 are lost each year just seems beyond stupid. The gene pool needs some chlorine. Based on my rough calculations, I was safer in '92 floating about the Gulf of Oman than I am today commuting an hour a day. If I die, I want my tombstone to read "Flunked Statistics; Died on Freeway" The biggest worry at this point is embers and after that, how to de-stress enough to get some sleep tonight. Hummm... how to program a PIC to monitor for embers... --- James Newton, webhost piclist.com (former Admin #3) jamesnewton@piclist.com 1-619-652-0593 fax:1-208-279-8767 PIC/PICList FAQ: http://www.piclist.com or .org -----Original Message----- From: Bill Roberts Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2003 4:20 PM To: Russell McMahon; Roderick Macdonald; larry d; James Michael Newton; David G Leatham; Betty Subject: Looks like Canberra herabouts. Southern Cal is a firestorm. The area east, west, and south of James' house is ablaze. All highways from San Diego are closed with the exception of the beach route northward. I live a scant 8 mi. from mexico and the fires are licking at my town as well. The sky is wall to wall smoke with a dull orange sun. Cornflake sized ashes are raining and drifting like snow. There is no rain in sight. .....So what's new with you? -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details. -- http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body