The Australian Wildfires

As always, The Boston Globe's Big Picture series captures some of the amazing and shocking realities of events around the world. This series is from the Australian Wildfires. Click the link for more images, some are pretty amazing, some are pretty awful (in a sad way). The photos remind me of the seemingly never-ending series of fires in close proximity to our house this last year. Bad enough that our school district shut down early one day as ash drifted down on us all. Here are a few photos from the school that day. Nothing anywhere near as arresting as the first in the series of photos from The Big Picture.

Football and Campfires

My Sunday consisted of a raucous and fun football party this late morning into the afternoon followed by a quick trip home for some naps while I enjoyed the Ravens/Steelers game (and snoozed a bit). And then, this evening, we loaded up the dryer fire and had us a little suburban campfire in the backyard. The pic to the right is me holding Brogan and was taken by Grady (who's developing a pretty good eye for photos) the pic below of Mike is also one of Grady's.

The party was the culmination of our local and long running football pool. It is usually held at someone's house and includes lots of meat on bbq's, much drinking, much gambling and more hooting and hollering than you can shake a stick at. This year was a little different because the party was held at a restaurant owned by a friend of the guy who ran the pool this season. It ended up being a great location with lots of space, some sunny, some close to the tv and a couch to relax on as well.

The Cardinals and Eagles game was all that it was cracked up to be. The first half belonged to the Cards and most of the second was the Eagles with the Cards pulling out the win to send Kurt Warner, Larry "Hat-Trick" Fitzgerald and the Cards to the Super Bowl.

Besides my two boys, there were two other kids, one a little older than Sully and the other a wee toddler just finding his way up to two feet. They mostly played well but, as the afternoon got longer, the meltdowns and battling became more and more frequent. But, by that time, the game was just about over and it was time to roll out.

On the drive home, the boys were out cold asleep by the time we merged from 17 to Highway 1. I'll admit that I was having a hard time keeping my own eyes open but I had a job to do and I was going to get it done.

We pulled off the highway into Watsonville and stopped at the light and some idiot lady in her Honda Accord bashed into us from behind. Neither of the boys got woken up and there was no damage to our car but it still rattled me a bit. I hope my trailer hitch mangled her front end a bit.

After enjoying most of the Steelers and Ravens game, including some moments when it looked like the Ravens were going to close the lead and maybe even win, and then Palomalu made that interception and ran it back in for a touchdown and the game (and spread) were done. I headed into the backyard with my cool new LED headlight to put together a speedy dryer fire as per Grady's many repeated request from the last two days.

I don't know where he saw it but he's been asking for a campfire for a few days now and was getting rather annoyingly persistent. Not that I was against doing one, I just wanted to watch the end of the game in peace, ya know?

The dryer fire, for thems that aren't already knowing, is the steel barrel from a washing machine that's had the center post removed. It makes a fantastic contained and portable fire pit.

I set it on a pair of bricks, loaded it up with some cardboard and sticks, then layered it up to larger sticks. It took about five minutes to get ready for action and then it was lighting time. I had extended a bit of torn cardboard down into the hole left by the center post and lit it from underneath. But that was taking too long and the smoke freaked out Grady so I lit it in several other places and, within about five minutes, we had us a roaring fire.

Once it had flamed up and then started to die down, we made some s'mores and gnoshed happily for a little while. I even made myself a marshmallow torch by allowing one to catch fire and held it aloft (but not over me as the dripping marshmallow bits are sticky and very, very hot).

After the thrill of the fire and s'mores had worn off and everyone else went inside, I grabbed a hot dog and cooked it over the fire. There is nothing better than food cooked over an open fire. It was the best tasting hot dog I've had in a very long time.

A good fun day, some good fun pictures (Grady borrowed my camera at the football party and took some outstanding photos of people in addition to a whole bunch of WTF photos but that's the beauty of digital, just erase the ones that we don't want).

Oh yeah, I also had fun putting the fire out at the end of the night. It threw off massive clouds of smoke and steam as I hit it with the hose. That was cool!

Not So Independence-y

Because of the wild fires raging all across the state, fireworks sales were blocked locally and there were flashing signs on the entrance roads to Watsonville warning against the use of illegal fireworks.

In Aptos, there were still some fireworks being shot off but it was nowhere near like years past. The crowds were much smaller, the beach was much emptier and there were po-po's everywhere. It really didn't feel a whole lot like an Independence Day celebration to me.

Especially when Grady and I walked out to Seacliff and the authorities had set up huge lights to shine into people's faces making any fireworks observing suck, badly. It was still a nice night and we all had a good time at the party, including Nande until the explosions started and she started panting and didn't stop until after I fell asleep. The boys had tons of fun running around, P had lots of fun socializing and chatting and getting a buzz on, and I had a good time hanging out with my boys (the party boys as well as my little boys).

But the message about fireworks was received. Normally our street would be littered with debris from multiple "launch stations" up and down it. But, when we pulled onto our street at 10:30 or so, not a single spent mortar tube, not a single spinner casing, not a single person out and about. There were random explosions across the city but nothing even approaching the mayhem and cordite blanket from years past.

Not a bad Fourth of July by any stretch, though I do wish I could have slept in a little bit, this whole waking up at 6:30 crap sucks. But at least my throat isn't raw from inhaling so much smoke. I just uploaded my camera and not a single picture of fireworks to be found. Very unusual indeed.

Of course, the fires down south are even worse today than they were the last time I wrote about them. And there are more fires roaring all over the state. It is a bad time to be underbrush around here. Which reminds me, I need to get the little hill in the backyard raked out and the straw tinder gone, I just wetted it all down last night but its got to go.

Happy 4th of July to everyone, I hope it was a safe, fun and wildfire free evening for all.

A Long But Great Day Out

It is, as I write this, a quarter to six. I woke up this morning right around 4:30 and was unable to get back to bed. The sake and beers probably didn't help but either way, I've been up for more than 13 hours now and am wiped out.

Today was a good day though. Nice breakfast (corned beef hash and eggs!), an aborted trip to the Exploratorium (the line was over two hours long to get in because it was a free day), we ended up out at Chrissy Field for a little while and then drove down Highway 1 along the coast.

At Devil's Slide there were almost 20 kite surfers ripping it up and the weather was gorgeous. Only a couple of Sunday drivers who needed to be passed with extreme acceleration (have I mentioned how much I like

I've uploaded some of the trip pics already. And more to come as I work through them.

A great time was had by all and we're now prepped for longer trips out and about. I'd like to go camping in Big Sur but that's not going to be happening anytime soon with the fires and mandatory evacuations taking place. Maybe we'll go hit Henry Cowell first. I know I want Nande to come with us but am not sure how that'll fly.

More Fire Fridays!

I had to hang out at work for a couple of extra hours yesterday since somebody set a grassfire that go out of control really quickly and burned down at least 9 structures including some houses. The big smoke cloud photo was taken from my school some 8 or 9 miles away. The helicopter was one of two that was buzzing the highway on the way home and the CDF investigation team was set up on the median strip of the highway and watching the hillside slowly burn itself out.

And everything smells like a campfire this morning.

In a bit of potentially good news, there is some serious debate about whether or not to sell fireworks locally. This is one of the few places you can buy fireworks but, given the dryness of the area and the multiple fires we've already had, the authorities are giving some thought to not allowing any sales. And I'd be fine with that. I'm sure Nande would be too since she spends all night panting and freaked out by the illegal fireworks being set off.

Mentalacity

A new word to describe an old and self absorbed mentality combined with mendacity (a falsehood or lie). It is the act of willful ignorance and continuing to do whatever it is you want to do. An alternative spelling could be Mentalassity but the mendacity aspect gets harder to find.

It is the equivalent of trying to get a suntan on a boat that's sinking. A mentalicitious person is one that somehow justifies the use of a frozen ball of ice in a snowball fight. Mentalacity is the stupid jackasses in my town who are unable to connect the dots about fire danger (the recent one above town, the one burning right now near Davenport and the one up north in Butte County) and how unutterably stupid it is to shoot fireworks off.

Notwithstanding the fact that its illegal, its not even July yet and they're basically just drunk morons. All of that almost goes without saying.

An Unexpected Day Off

Here are a few additional shots from yesterday:

My Memorial Day weekend has gotten off to an early start. Actually it started yesterday afternoon when I left school for lunch and, when I called in to check, was told to take the rest of the day off.

This morning I should have checked my email before leaving for work. But, in retrospect its a good thing I didn't. If I had then I would have known that the entire district was closed down due to air quality concerns.

But since I didn't, I drove up the highway into work at the school. Only to find it almost completely deserted. Almost, except for one of the school's "grandmas" was standing on the curb with a distressed student.

What had happened, I think, was that her father had dropped her off at the bus stop out on the street and didn't drive down to the school. There was a sign at the steps leading down into the school announcing the closure but nothing out on the road at all.

Anyway, it took a little doing but we got her mom's company name out of her and I, using my superior iPhone technology, looked up the number and called it. She asked for her mom and let her know what had happened and could she come and pick her up? Did I mention she was in shorts and short sleeves and it was a heavy fog morning?

I called the school principal to let him know what was happening and took her into the library to get her out of the cold. She's either quiet as a mouse or was pretty upset by the whole thing. She got a book and sat to wait.

I checked my email and, sure enough, there were several emails about the district-wide school closure. And news that at least one district employee's house had burned down.

I'm home now, told to stay indoors due to air quality issues again. Trying to keep the boys from killing each other, trying to work on resume stuff and keeping an eye on job boards.

I am glad that I went into work today and was able to help the student get picked up. Her day had already been pretty unfun. And I got to do a good deed.

The good thing about the cold fog today is that its apparently helping the fight the fires and the news reported 20% containment as of 8 this morning. A good start and I hope nobody else has to lose their home.

And that a sensible undergrowth clearing plan is put into place. The fire spokesman said there is a hundred years of undergrowth up there and the dry spring basically makes it one huge tinderbox.

Fire in the Mountains

Wildfire in Santa Cruz Mountains prompts some evacuations and has cast an enormous cloud of smoke across the entire Santa Cruz area.

My car, parked in the driveway and a good thirty miles from the fires, was covered in ash this morning.

There's a thin layer of blue skies just at the horizon and then nothing but brownish dark clouds above. Its kind of a bizarre sight really.

There's a decent chance that area schools are going to be shutdown because of the ash falling all over the area. In fact, my principal is announcing that parents may be coming to pick up kids due to the smoke and ash.

And it will get worse before it starts to get better.

[Update: A local news blogger, Brittney Gilbert, has picked up the photo and is running it on the CBS 5 Eye on Blogs! Also, the full sized image can be found in my Flickr photostream.