So I'm sitting here..............

[dharmon]

for the past three days watching smoke and fires on the hills and wondering whether or not we'll be ordered to relocate to a "safer" part of the county (which I don't think exists other than about 20 feet into the surf). I would have to say that we were probably ten knots of favorable wind away from having to bug out. Unfortunately good for us wasn't so good for others. The little burst of sea breeze that pushed the fire down the east slope away from us ran it right towards another community. They left this morning.
Then out of the media induced doom and gloom and ashes falling all over, I hear the comforting sound of the BNSF local hitting the lumberyard and grain elevator. And then the realization hits me......how better to get the kids (and wife)to relax and go to sleep than to put it into perspective that everything must be okay because the trains are still running......and the trains wouldn't be driving in loads of wood anywhere that a fire was going to go, right? Well, I guess they bought it. So personal felings about mega-railroads aside, gotta say thanks to BNSF for perfect timing.

Support you firefighters and cops, they are the troops too!

[Anonymous]

Dan

You and yours are in our thoughts and prayers.

Be careful and stay as safe as possible during this event.

We hope everything turn out ok for you.

[Anonymous]

Mr. Harmon,

I sure hope you and your family stay safe and I hope the fire'll soon be put out... we've had some nasty fires in Croatia this summer, along the beautiful Adriatic coast and on some islands, too, and it's really devastating to see the beautiful forests burn, not to mention the homes...

Take care and all the best to the whole Sunny State,
Oliver

[Mookie]

Dan - So glad the fire missed you! It can't be much fun, even if you aren't right on top of it - with all the ash and smoke. Gosh - water on the east coast, fire on the west coast and .....sheer boredom in the mid section - I am loving it more all the time!

Pssst - I always sleep better when the trains run, too!

Mookie

[JoeKoh]

Dan
glad your okay.stay safe our prayers are with you.
joe mamma and matt

[edblysard]

Trust me, if Dan is as smart as I know him to be, he already has "the kit" packed and ready, and a route outta there planned.
Dan is smart enough and better trained than most, so when its time to go, I am betting he will be ready.
When you live around there, if you dont make plans and get ready, it can sneak up on you faster than you can imagine.
But still, to watch everything you worked you whole life for just burn, and not a thing you can do about it, must be heart breaking!
Stay Safe,
Ed

[CShaveRR]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dharmon
I hear the comforting sound of the BNSF local hitting the lumberyard and grain elevator.

A noise like that wouldn't be comforting to me at all, and the result might be almost as damaging as the fire![;)]

My baby girl (who's bigger than I am!) has her boyfriend in San Diego, so we're getting daily reports...hope his flight out of the area to visit her isn't affected.

So take care, go when they tell you to, and good luck!

[Anonymous]

Dan, I wouldn't wanna be in your shoes buddy. Keep that family safe! Keep us posted.
Ken

[Mookie]

Where is Marty in all this? Missing Marty - please call home!

Mother Moo....

[zardoz]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

Dan - So glad the fire missed you! It can't be much fun, even if you aren't right on top of it - with all the ash and smoke. Gosh - water on the east coast, fire on the west coast and .....sheer boredom in the mid section - I am loving it more all the time!

Pssst - I always sleep better when the trains run, too!

Mookie

Yes, except for the blizzards [not the dairy queen ones] in the winter, and the tornados in the summer. It's one of the (dis) advantages of living on a planet tilted 23 degrees--there is nowhere on this rock where the weather or geology does not pose a hazzard at one time or another. Of all the planets I've visited, this one had the most interesting weather.[8D]

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by zardoz

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

Dan - So glad the fire missed you! It can't be much fun, even if you aren't right on top of it - with all the ash and smoke. Gosh - water on the east coast, fire on the west coast and .....sheer boredom in the mid section - I am loving it more all the time!

Pssst - I always sleep better when the trains run, too!

Mookie

Yes, except for the blizzards [not the dairy queen ones] in the winter, and the tornados in the summer. It's one of the (dis) advantages of living on a planet tilted 23 degrees--there is nowhere on this rock where the weather or geology does not pose a hazzard at one time or another. Of all the planets I've visited, this one had the most interesting weather.[8D]

Really! You have been to those planets? [:o)]

Actually, except for high heat and humidity in the summer, we have no weather. No snow, no rain, no wind, no nothin'! Planet Lincoln!

Moork

[Anonymous]

Stay safe Mr Harmon, it would be a female dog to have gone through the bull of Bosnia only to become a victim in your own backyard.

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dharmon

for the past three days watching smoke and fires on the hills and wondering whether or not we'll be ordered to relocate to a "safer" part of the county (which I don't think exists other than about 20 feet into the surf). I would have to say that we were probably ten knots of favorable wind away from having to bug out. Unfortunately good for us wasn't so good for others. The little burst of sea breeze that pushed the fire down the east slope away from us ran it right towards another community. They left this morning.
Then out of the media induced doom and gloom and ashes falling all over, I hear the comforting sound of the BNSF local hitting the lumberyard and grain elevator. And then the realization hits me......how better to get the kids (and wife)to relax and go to sleep than to put it into perspective that everything must be okay because the trains are still running......and the trains wouldn't be driving in loads of wood anywhere that a fire was going to go, right? Well, I guess they bought it. So personal felings about mega-railroads aside, gotta say thanks to BNSF for perfect timing.

Support you firefighters and cops, they are the troops too!

Hello Dan,

Which fire has threatened you, I've also been watching the fires. No, I'm not anywhere near the blazes (Pasadena) but several co-workers are in the line of fire (literally). My Sister-in-law's family is in Rancho Cucamonga near to 210 freeway, they got stuck in their house friday, saturday, annd sunday, too much smoke and the roads and freeways were all shut down near them. Luckily they didnt have too evacuate, but they were scared, they could see the flames. We have a thick cloud of smoke over downtown LA right now, now I know what daytime on Mars is like, literally. Hope you can still remain there and that your not evacuated. I just heard on the news that Julian, the gold rush era town north of San Diego has been ordered evacuated and they dont think they can stop the fire before it reaches the town. This has been a SURREAL weekend for everyone here in the southland and this week hasnt brought much good news. The weather is supposed to cool down dramaticly by this weekend, too late for far too many people.

[Anonymous]

To all my friends in California. I hope they catch the SOBs who started these fires and fry them. All of you stay safe, there are too many Americans dying in Iraq without adding to the total here.

[dharmon]

Thank you very much for the kind comments and support. The fires in San Diego County are not out, but have for now moved from our area. There were three main fires: the Paradise fire which threatened us in the North, The Cedar fire in the center and east county, which received the most media coverage....no bitterness (really), but the higher the value of the homes threatened, the more coverage and assets are commited, and the Otay fire to the south.

We watched the Paradise fire break the ridge line to the north of us, but it was late in the afternoon and the wind thank god started to shift to a sea breeze and an blew it east down the slope and away from us. Today, the Paradise fire is threatening homes again. Not ours but somebodies.

We didn't load up, but made checklist and a packing order of stuff we were going to take. I figure we could have loaded and been out out about 45 minutes. I guess that's the only benefit of 15 years of naval service.....our furniture is disposable because we move so much (I promised her we'd buy nice stuff as soon as we grow roots) and the things that are important can be packed up quickly....I stayed up most the night watching the news and the glow on the hills, didn't drink any beer though I really wanted to just in case, and built about six HO scale kits from the mess that I've collected over the years and drug around with me......figured I might as well get my money's worth in case I had to leave them behind.. Another benefit..I guess, not having lived in any single house house any more than three years, we aren't so attached that it'll kill us.

I had 6 families in my command evacuated from different parts of the county. Fortunately no one lost anything to date. The high pressure system that brought us the evil Santa Ana winds is breaking up and the wind is starting to become a sea breeze, pushing some parts of the fire back on itself, and away from the major population center, but they are still very much alive and dangerous. They lost an entire small town, Cuyamaca, today. Gone. Right now they are trying to save another town.

You know, I've been in some pretty bad places in my life... had alot of bad guys take a personal interest in well let's say, prematurely ending my mission. But it was my time, and I knew the odds. When the family is involved it's a whole different story. Kind of feels powerless not to have the means to fight back.

Anyway, the point of the post was, that RRs are like baseball, levis, cowboy boots, hot dogs, bbq and old chevys (1970 c10s to be exact)...they provide a certain bit of good old american feel good comfort food for the soul when times aren't so great.

Think about it...

Thanks again, were fine for now....

Dan

[dharmon]

By the way Jim, I saw a couple of the CA Dept of Forestry S-2Ts and some Navy SH-3s dropping water/slurry on the fires. Makes me want to pick up a new line of work. [;)]
Dan

[dharmon]

Oh, and because for those of you that know me, and know I can't resist seeing the humor in some things. .....

The news is full of how bad the air quality is right now. And quite frankly they are right. The whole county is covered in smoke and ash. Really weird looking red tinted sky.

Well, I don't don't know where they got the idea, but alot, and I mean alot of folks are running around with those paper dust masks for mowing the lawn and sanding and such on, thinking it's doing something to filter out the carcenogens from all the burning stuff. It's doing nothing but making Home Depot shareholders richer.

okay there is a point, i'm getting there[:)]


But anyway, in the middle of everything else, my wife had a toothache which turned into a root canal. When I went to pick her up, I was stopped at a light and looked over at the driver next to me.....she's wearing one of these masks in her car driving. She pulls the mask down takes a drag off her cigarette and put the mask back up..........[xx(]

on the bright side I guess, she wasn't trying to talk on her cell phone also.

[eastcoast]

Dan
all kidding aside, the national news says that those fires will be pushed the other way if that weather system shifts. Either way , watch your butt and try not to get burned out there. That's some dangerous stuff . Be careful, let us know how you are.
ken_ecr

[edblysard]

Dan, Remember the nice, damp bayous?
All the dark, green pine trees,?
Rain every afternoon at three?
Air so full of humidity you could cut it with a knife, and it felt like it was hard to walk through?
Come home!
Swamps are waiting!
Ed

[dharmon]

QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard

Dan, Remember the nice, damp bayous?
All the dark, green pine trees,?
Rain every afternoon at three?
Air so full of humidity you could cut it with a knife, and it felt like it was hard to walk through?
Come home!
Swamps are waiting!
Ed

Home sweet (unless down around Pasedena) home.

But how can I give up all the glamor of CA.......the traffic, fires, earthquakes, crime, smog, death by taxes, inept state gov't. If I wasn't based here, I'd pay to live here...oh wait I do.

My wife and I decided it's just fate......we go to the Northeast and we get monster record breaking snows, go to the SE and whacked by a hurricane, move over seas and live in the shadow of a volcano, go home and have to sit through a tornado......Oh yeah take orders to CA, the weather's great.............you'll love it.