Oct 31 2007
Nearly 20 years. Damn.
Anyway, looking forward to seeing everyone….I missed the 15 year, but the 10 year was fun and went really fast.
Here’s the site for general information and updates:
And here’s a forum for general discussion, catching up, name calling, etc.
Oct 25 2007
Met some friends last night for a beer. Their house northeast of San Diego had a very close call; fire came all the way into their backyard and burned down a gazebo (that they were planning on getting rid of anyway), but they suffered no damage otherwise. Two nearby neighbors weren’t so lucky. The firefighters left a note that they were there, probably saved their house. I have a feeling they’ll be receiving lots of cookies soon.
The UT put together a pretty nice fire map here that shows the location of many of the destroyed houses. Rancho Bernardo was hit really hard.
Air quality is pretty bad here, but other than that, it seems like the county has made it through the worst of it.
Oct 24 2007
Though the fires continue to burn, our area is still well away from any activity. I’m surprised that it’s not smokier (though it’s still obvious that the air quality isn’t that great; check out this link for current and predicted air quality. The closest station to us is Kearney Mesa. The Escondido station is very close to the fires.
Here’s a map of the fires as of 6:00 am Wednesday morning. As you can see, winds have shifted and moved the active fronts of some of the fires.
We know lots of people who’ve been evacuated. Two of them had houses either within or very close to a burn zone. Thankfully, the fires seem to have spared them (though some of their neighbors weren’t so lucky).
As of 1 PM, the air in our corner of Serra Mesa is still OK, though I’m starting to see little bits of ash floating around (which means there’s probably lots of tiny particles floating around that I can’t see). Our area seems to be one of the least affected by the smoke, based on pollution report data. The easiest way to find our neighborhood on a map is to find the spot where Highway 163 and Interstate 805 cross each other diagonally; our neighborhood is directly south of that crossing. (All of the steets are named after birds).
Oct 23 2007
Oddly enough, the skies are still fairly clear in our neigborhood, though the smell of smoke is still prevalent and there is a light dusting of ash on the ground. Closer to downtown, there is ash visible in the air, but not as thick as it was during the Cedar fire. We’re fortunate enough to be out of the path of any of the fires, but these fires are definitely affecting many more people than the Cedar fires of 2003, especially in North County. Some areas of east Chula Vista (mostly Eastlake neighborhoods) are under optional evacuation orders as the Harris fire creeps closer northeast from the Lower Otay Reservoir to Sweetwater Reservoir.
KPBS created a great Google map showing the extent of the fire, as well as evacuation areas and evacuation centers.
A Flickr pool has been created to collect photographs from the fires; almost 50 pictures so far.
A coworker just sent the pictures below, taken from the backyard of her home in Spring Valley. As you can see in one picture, helicopters have been dropping water in the open space behind her house in an attempt to halt the spread of the fire. (This is the northeastern front of the Harris Fire, which originated near the Mexican border).
Oct 22 2007
A few friends have emailed me asking if we’re affected by the fires that are raging all around the county. Thankfully, we’re only affected by crappy air quality at this point. All of the fires started pretty far east in the county in more rural (and brushy) areas. However, one of the fires in the northeast county, the Witch Creek fire, has been heavily fueled by strong westerly Santa Ana winds and has resulted in the evacuation of a large area north of Highway 56 between Interstate 5 and Interstate 15. Though that area is about 10 miles or so north of us, it’s a pretty large area.
The pictures below show the sky this morning from our house. It smells like a campfire, and you can see bits of ash on our cars, and the sky is a little hazy, but it’s not nearly as bad as the sky was back in 2003 when I lived closer to downtown. Here are some pictures and whatnot I posted in 2003 related to that Cedar Fire.
Noon update : Air quality still not too bad here (smells like a campfire, some ashes) but the skies aren’t black like they were over downtown in the Cedar Fire. I’ve been watching a lot of local news coverage; houses have been lost in Escondido, Rancho Bernardo, and I think even a southern corner of Oceanside. Parts of Poway (just north of Scripps Ranch the hardest hit area of the Cedar Fire) seems to be in danger. One fire official said that given the wind conditions for the next few days, the Witch Creek fire could spread as far west as the coast, which could affect anywhere from Oceanside to Del Mar, I’m guessing. I think the only reason our neighborhood isn’t too smoky is that there are no fires directly east of us, and the wind seems to be blowing in a strong westerly direction.
You may have noticed this evacuation area map. This is quite a large area, so you may be wondering, “aren’t there more than 250,000 people there?” Much of this area could be described as high-income, semi-rural (large estates with several acres of property or more), so the population density is much lower than some other parts of San Diego county. Check out this Zillow link to see what I mean.
Here are some photo galleries from SignOnSanDiego.
Here are some Google map links showing areas where houses have burned or were in imminent danger:
3925 Tierra Vista Place Escondido
Lomas Serinas Drive, near Escondido
Local news coverage
Oct 02 2007
Anyone received a call like this lately?
The vague references to my “credit card accounts” tipped me off that this was probably a scam, just like the crap notices I get in the mail all the time pretending to be some official correspondence regarding my mortgage (the terms of which, unfortunately, are apparently public information).
A few times, I’ve pressed 9 to talk to someone. The first time, I asked to be put on their do-not-call list and was promptly hung up on. I redialed the # on the caller ID; the phone was answered by a bewildered Spanish-speaking person. Ah….called-id spoofing. A classy operation.
The second time, I tried to string them along a little bit. When “Greg” answered the phone, I asked him what company he represented, to which he replied, “Card Services.” I then asked, “well, I have several accounts via different banks or other entities. Which entity are you affiliated with?,” to which he answered, “oh, we can service any credit card.” You can see where this is going. I should have strung him along for longer, but as soon as I said, “how come I’ve received four of these same calls that say it’s my “final notice.” Greggy-boy got a little agitated, and said, “do you want on the do not call list? OK, here it goes…” and then hung up. Ass.
I found another blog entry that even has an audio transcript of the call. Apparently, people that have fallen for this can get screwed over pretty badly.
So what can be done? Until the feds bust them and shut them down, hit them where it hurts! Remember, time = money. When you get these calls, press “1″ so you can talk to a live operator. String them along for awhile (without giving them any personal info, of course!), and keep them on the line as long as possible. Ask inane questions, go on tangents, whatever. If I’m in a bad mood, getting one of these calls is a good way to vent (though you get hung up on pretty quickly). I don’t normally do that to telemarketers (I just give them the “put me on your do not call list line”) but this outfit is a reprehensible scam; no sympathy.
