California fires
My sister-in-law, Cindy Myers, lives in Oxnard, California. She is not directly threatened by the massive fires that are sweeping coastal California from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border, but she has to endure the smoke. She sent Lenie a photo of what it’s like outside her front door.
I lived in that area for about 10 years. My little home was about 11 houses from the ocean on Silver Strand Beach, nestled between the Port Hueneme (pronounced Y-NEE-MEE) Naval Air Station and Oxnard Shores. When the hot winds come strong off the desert, you get a Santa Ana condition, which is what they have now. It’s so devastatingly dry that you feel like your skin is cracking. The winds even pick up the pesticides from the agricultural fields so a lot of people, including me, would get these bad sinus headaches. With these terribly uncomfortable blustery winds driving these fires, there is no stopping them. You either let the fires burn to the ocean or pray the wind dies down.
Notice the relative calm at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego compared to the Superdome in New Orleans during the Hurricane Katrina disaster? Did the federal disaster services agency learn that much since Katrina? Or is something else at play? Whatever, I am very impressed with the orderliness. I lived through many fires in my years in southern California, and people always behaved well.
I wonder how long it will be before someone blames these fires on Bush and global warming.
13th Year Anthology Intro
I’m writing the introduction to the 13th Year Anthology today. It’s our best anthology yet. It will go to the printer tomorrow, then to your mail box before Christmas. If you haven’t bought yours yet, better click HERE for our inexpensive preorder special.
