Some pictures I took off my balcony of the fires

NASA released some pictures of the fires in California.  Amazing… but horrible … but Amazing.

Mt Wilson. The home of many communication outlets is in the path of the wild fires that are growing out of control in California.

Someone tell the Jackson family and Speidi immediatly that this is happening, I would hate to see the emotional distress it would give them to know that they have no media outlet to talk to. Get to Vegas quickly!

“Nearly 30,000 loads of laundry cleaned for families affected by disasters, and counting…”

Tide Loads of Hope is a wonderful program that offers relief to those affected by a natural disaster. With a mobile laundromat comprised of energy efficient washers and dryers Tide Loads of Hope will wash, dry, and fold clothes…for free.

This is a wonderful act of humanitarianism through doing a simple task for a fellow person. Tide Loads of Hope has impacted the lives of those distraught by the California wild fires, Hurricane Ike, and Hurricane Katrina.

It is always ideal to donate your time and volunteer. However, if you are unable, you can still make a difference. Purchase Tide laundry detergent with the yellow cap and a proceed of the sale will go towards helping families affected by disaster.

By Craig Baird

In a recent article from The Daily Green, four ways were shown that global warming can increase the effects of wildfires. If you live in California these days, you know all about wild fires because they seem to happen on a yearly basis, sometimes a few times per year.

The first way that global warming increases the risk of wild fires is that when it is warmer, there is an earlier snow melt. With less snow and more evaporation creating a quicker runoff, many areas are prone to drought earlier in the year and even greater drought later in the year. This dries out grasses and trees and makes them much more susceptible to fire.

The second way is that global warming creates more evaporation, which means that the water or rain evaporates before it can ever sink into the plants, which again leads to dry trees and grasses.

The third way global warming increases the risk of wild fires is that new tree pests can infect the trees when there is more heat. Layla and I have lived in British Columbia and seen the incredible devastation that the pine beetle has created. The damage the pine beetle inflicts is increased because they are no longer dying off in the winter. With trees that are killed or severely compromised by the pine beetle, they are more susceptible to fire.

Lastly, more heat creates stronger storms that have a greater chance of lightning strikes that will ignite the dry and parched land affected by global warming. Also, this creates rainstorms that are more flash than anything, which causes the water to evaporate before it can soak into the ground.

This is just the beginning of what we are seeing with global warming. While large wild fires are a yearly event right now, with greater temperatures caused by global warming they could become a bi-monthly or monthly event. Again, we see that the effects of global warming are far reaching and go far beyond just melting ice.

From powderxxx.wordpress.com

Jaylyn Rose

“Ink Addicts” was first up with Baadmaster and Regan Reese. The lovely Tabitha James returned to the RudeTV couch and to Vince Society’s tattoo chair, to continue work on her arm. Baadmaster showed bad tattoos and each were rated by the group. Once Tabitha’s tattooing began, Regan Reese’s former roommate and friend, Jason was welcomed onto the show. Discussions of living with Regan were had as the camera switched to the progress of Tabitha James’s tattoo through out the show. Toward the end, Jaylyn Rose came on air briefly to say hello to the RudeTV viewers.

“Whispers” was next with the returning Lexi Love. Her show went well as always. Fans called in and got off and Lexi squirted several times to the delight of the viewers.

“Smell My Finger” with Wankus and Jessica Bangkok came on as they welcomed Tabitha James back on the air. Tabitha talked about her background as a preschool teacher, before getting into porn as well as exploring her own sexuality. Legendary male performer Evan Stone joined the show next. Evan was in top form the whole, cracking jokes and having a good time with everyone. Lexxi Rain came in next with party promoter King Ryan. Lexxi was first introduced to the RudeTV audience, last Friday. Her birthday party and upcoming events were discussed, as Evan Stone continued to make everyone in the studio crack up with laughter. The show ended with Jessica Bangkok going down on Tabitha James, while Evan lovingly choked her. Tabitha looked to be in heaven as we faded out.

“Ebony Nights” with Flexx was the final show of the night. Amber Peach called in for Atlanta, GA to talk about what she had been doing recently and to promote her website, amberpeachraw.com. Soon, director and Jenna Jameson’s former bodyguard, Luther King joined the show as Flexx’s special co-host. Luther and Flexx spent most the night discussing the upcoming elections and racial perceptions about her candidate with tongues planted firmly in cheek.

(Thanks for all your kind comments. Here is the latest from Maria who is up around Ukiah…)

Dear Maude and All,

Thank you for your notes! It is scary at times – BUT we all can do much good here because so much is what they call “hand work”. Also they want us to get each of our homesteads fire safe. The fire so far has been slow moving. Coming closer but not that fast. I just inspected the new fire break that was cut today by CalFire and two convict crews – can you imagine that, “con-crews”. It is right below and slightly to the east of our house which is disappointing, was hoping they would take a stand closer to the fire and further away from our houses. We ended up just outside the border where they are hoping to take yet another stand if the fire breaches the fire break again.

Also, amazingly, we had “resources” here for the first time today. It was just like in Artaud during rush hour – three helicopters passing over us at the rate of one every two minutes, dipping their buckets into private ponds around us and dropping it on the fire. We can see the helicopter flying toward the ridge getting into position, hovering and then those beautiful small waterfalls come crashing down from the bucket. Tomorrow they are hoping to set a series of back fires in Redwood Canyon to cut off the approach of the Jack Smith fire from that direction.

As far as your question is concerned, yes. With the help of a neighbor and his mowing truck I actually created a helicopter landing place very close to Jeff’s and my place. We have one of the few flat spots without trees right outside out houses and just needed to cut the knee deep grass. We will be able to cal in the medical evacuation helicopter to pick up injured people. The mowed area is large enough to be a fire safe zone and if things all of a sudden change, the wind kicks up or lightning strikes again, as predicted for tomorrow, we can take shelter there and the fire will burn around us.

Are Ken and Laurie back? They were over here for a fire dinner when the sheriff arrived and gave all of us the evacuation orders. So we refilled our wine glasses for a toast – and later found out that only the west part of the ranch was supposed to go. Everything here is so convoluted – no wonder that they got lost.

Hoping to come back soon to do badly needed work for TUC Radio. Am just afraid that the CHP won’t let me back in if things take a turn for the worse – as they did yesterday for an afternoon.

- Maria

By Stephen M. Schaub

Every photographer knows to make backup copies of their digital files and to always put a copyright notice with each use of one of their works but what most photographers don’t realize is that the fire safes they have their negatives and CD’s stored in will not protect them from a fire. That’s right, they will melt- as they were designed for protecting paper and not your negatives or CDs.

For example: I was just reading a story on line about a photographer in California whose house was tragically destroyed in the recent fires. When he returned to his home he was delighted to find his fire safe intact… only to open it and find the negatives and transparencies inside were all melted…30 years worth of work gone!

What can you do?

Simple, buy a Media Safe. These safes are specifically designed to protect items that will melt at a lower temperature than paper will burn. Yes I know they can be expensive and quite heavy but it is the only way to ensure your negatives, transparencies and CD/ DVD’s will survive a fire. Additionally, most companies who make media safes will also give you a new one if yours was damaged in a fire- nice.

So, what’s more expensive: losing 30 years worth of irreplaceable work? Or the cost of proper protection a good media safe provides? I have had one for the last 10 years and believe me, the peace of mind is worth every penny.

Here are some photos and notes I took during the week of Great California Firestorm….

Day One, Sunday, October 21, 2007:

This was taken late afternoon. Malibu is in the distance. The grey stuff is not fog or clouds; it’s smoke.

This was taken a couple of hours later. Again, this is smoke, not clouds. I did not enhance the colors. In fact, the colors were far more angry and savage than comes out in the image.

I snapped these off my TV. These were taken at the other fires in the area. I’ve never seen anything start so suddenly, in so many different places, and escalate so quickly.
I knew then that this would be very bad. 

Day Two, Monday, October 22

This is not a very good picture, but I just wanted to show how close to the city one of the wildfires got.  This is West Los Angeles and Santa Monica in the foreground. That orange spot in the distance is a hotspot in Malibu. This is only about 16 miles away.  This was taken Monday night.

Day 3, Tuesday, October 23 

Today, I shot these images on the way to work. You can see the pall of smoke descending over the area.   The air quality was very hazardous and we were advised to stay indoors.  My eyes, nose and throat became very irritated. 

By the afternoon, sickly yellow smoke had completely filled the sky.  This was taken from my front porch.

Day Four, Wednesday, October 24

I didn’t take any pictures today.  Things were pretty much the same in terms of air quality; however, the firefighter in Malibu were taking the upper hand and the winds were beginning to die down.    

Day Five, Thursday, October 25

“Blood Moon”

I went outside about 5:30 this morning to empty my trash. On the way back from the dumpster, I looked up and saw this almost full moon. There is no way this photo can really capture the baleful orange glow. This is absolutely the most trippy thing I’ve ever seen in the sky (except for the UFOs I once saw but that’s another story). This is the perfect Halloween moon!

(I am surmising that the smoke from the wildfires caused this effect.)

I ran inside and grabbed my camera. So there I was, standing in the middle of the sidewalk, in my pajamas, in the dark, snapping pictures.

THEN, to totally freak me out, I hear this very low, quiet voice say “Lori, what doing?” I jumped a foot and a half. The voice was coming from my upstairs neighbor who was sitting in the shadows of his veranda catching some fresh air. I suddenly realized I was standing in the middle of the sidewalk, in my pajamas, in the dark, snapping pictures. How embarrassing……..

Full disclosure: I adjusted this image to correct for some blurring around the edges of the moon and I increased the contrast and messed with levels a bit to bring it in line with what I actually saw. Other than that, this is what it was.

Day Six, Friday, October 26

Fog!  We have cool, thick, wet, wonderful, glorious fog!  I think the Devil Winds are gone……….for now. 

To finish up this post, here is a poem I wrote about 10 years ago.  Who would have known how prophetic this was going to be:

“El Dia de los Muetos”

Spent from their fiery rampage,
Santa Anas
rest and brood,
flat-lining smoke
over the still indigo of the bay,
a remnant of their holocaust
through the hills. Swollen

pus-yellow moon slowly sinks;
ocherous shafts of dawnlight
prophesy yet another hot
October day,
while Santa Anas,
hot off the desert, wait
for the end of the day.

The devil winds herald
the arrival of the dead–
The Eve of All Hallows
The Day of All Saints
El Dia del los Muertos
From the Hebrides to New Spain
celebrations of death call

for a time of reflection,
a preparation for rebirth,
by the winds of change
that burn the chaff,
nourish the earth,
and make way
for sweet winter rain.

Lori Gloyd, 1997, 2007

Thanks for taking the time to read.  Let’s hope this doesn’t happen again for a long time.  

Images, text, and poetry:  Lori Gloyd (c) 2007

Ok, maybe the title is overly dramatic, but this article speaks volumes about what went wrong in San Diego County and why:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez24oct24,1,2517947.column

A snippet follows, but please go to the site and read the whole article. Emphasis is mine.

Steve Lopez:

He won’t say ‘I told you so . . .’

October 24, 2007

Former San Diego fire Chief Jeff Bowman, who repeatedly warned that his city wasn’t prepared to handle major fires…..”

“…..When he isn’t growing Malbec and Cabernet Franc grapes on the 1-acre vineyard in front of his retreat, Bowman works as a consultant to fire departments and municipalities. With 16 years as chief in Anaheim and four in San Diego before quitting over staffing and resource issues, he’s got strong opinions on San Diego’s long, proud culture of skimping on services to keep taxes low.

“…..There’s no way to adequately staff for fires of this magnitude, Bowman says, and he doesn’t want to turn so much scorched earth and misery into an I-told-you-so speech. But ……he can’t help but go over some of the facts.

“Although the city of San Diego has a fire department, the county doesn’t, leaving many suburban and rural areas to rely on volunteer departments. The city has but one firefighting helicopter and just 975 firefighters for 330 square miles and 1.3 million residents.

Compare that, he says, with San Francisco, which has 1,600 firefighters for 60 square miles and 850,000 people.

“San Diego practices the biggest don’t-tax-me campaign I’ve seen,” says Bowman, a proud, lifelong Republican. Fine, he says, don’t raise taxes. But reevaluate how money is spent and redistribute it to public safety.

A number of San Diego suburbs have the same resource problems, he says, and are more inclined to invest in evacuation technology than fire prevention and suppression.

“It’s a lot cheaper,” he says. “I’ve had the hardest time with the culture of ‘We can do more with less.’ “

“………. I can’t help but notice the number of houses foolishly built on the edge of dense vegetation.

As UC San Diego professor Steve Erie puts it:

“It’s paradise plundered,” which happens to be the title of a book he’s finishing “about how developers run this town.”

“Erie says that “developers own most of the city councils. In Poway, in Escondido, what they do is put homeowners in harm’s way. They’re able to control zoning processes, and they’re frequently behind initiatives that say no new taxes, no new fire services. It’s insanity.”

“…… Bowman points out a fire station under construction. He’s glad it’s being built, but it should have gone up years ago, he says, when houses were first built in this formerly rural area filled with combustible vegetation……”

steve.lopez@latimes.com

California fires weigh on Avs Parker

You are in everyone’s thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. For ongoing coverage of the California wild fires, please click here.