Smoke Signals

At 2:30 last night, I finally called it quits and went to bed, after a night of refreshing the news, to try to see if the mandatory evacuation area was moving northwest at all.

Checked the LA Times site this morning, and their map shows a new, larger evacuation area:

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=117631292961056724014.00045bb74bee7a6056b1b&ll=33.914873,-117.79953&spn=0.398877,0.796509&output=embed&s=AARTsJrFc9uuKR6tW-MDVmhkiryZA_hMmA&w=425&h=350]

But I don't see anything different from my place. Looks like it's going to be another day of waiting,

Wildfire fun

Oh, the fun and excitement of fire season.

After being up at 2 am to put out a work fire, I decided at 9:30 to go to bed and nap until 1, then head down to the studio for the afternoon and night classes. Sensible, right?

Not when wildfires are raging in the hills south of you!

First, the only freeway that leads south was blocked off. Then, the batcave road that parallels the freeway south was also barricaded. No problem, I thought: just head east a bit and go around the hills on the east side of the canyon, then south, then west, and pick up the road south again. That was also barricaded, I discovered. Awesome. Got herded by the highway patrol onto the 15, a freeway MUCH further inland than I want to be for my destination being a studio 3 blocks from the beach.

I would turn around, but traffic's stopped in both directions.

Been driving for 2.5 hours. Hurrah. Will I make the night class? Stay tuned, true believers. Traffic's moving again; must go. Wildfire fun

the Prop. 8 protest

Outside, the police were actually being quite polite, except to the people who were insisting on sitting down in the middle of the street (for those of you not from LA, this was a move tantamount to suicide until the police could get traffic blocked off; about two pedestrians a month get struck by cars outside my office), which I thought was reasonable of the cops.... 8, they'll send the president of the Mormon Church a postcard with the following message: Dear President Monson: A donation has been made in your name by _________________ to “invalidateprop8.org” to overturn California's Proposition 8 and restore fundamental civil rights to all citizens of California.... Although we decry the reprehensible role the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints leadership played in denying all Californians equal rights under the law, we are pleased a donation has been made on your behalf in the effort to overturn the discrimination your church members helped enshrine in the California Constitution.

Read More