Re: OT Orange County fires

On Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:05:33 -0700, Jim Thompson
<To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


On Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:51:19 -0700, Jim Thompson
<To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


On Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:19:20 -0800, John Larkin
<jjlarkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sun, 16 Nov 2008 10:18:01 -0700, Jim Thompson
<To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


On Sun, 16 Nov 2008 08:49:44 -0800, John Larkin
<jjSNIPlarkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sun, 16 Nov 2008 09:33:35 -0700, Jim Thompson
<To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


On Sun, 16 Nov 2008 08:03:12 -0800, John Larkin
<jjSNIPlarkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sun, 16 Nov 2008 07:55:25 -0700, Jim Thompson
<To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


On Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:37:09 +0000, Guy Macon
<http://www.GuyMacon.com/> wrote:





Buena Park, CA (Knott's Berry Farm / close to Disneyland).
Just went out to get the paper. Layer of ash everywhere.,
Sky is red. Hard to breathe because of smoke.
Staying in today.

Thank the greenies for your problems :-(

...Jim Thompson

How's that?

Ever hear of "clear cutting"? In AZ clear cutting would reduce forest
fires to minor nuisances. Instead we annually have real messes on our
hands.

I have a confesion: I like trees.



California has always burned.

Are you allowed to clear that "grass" for 500 yards around you house?
Of course not.

Up here in Truckee, there's a forestry department that inspects
properties and issues instructions for clearing and defensable space.
And they enforce it.



A century of firefighting has just
changed the pattern... fewer and bigger fires. And lots more houses in
harm's way.

This is fire season. It rains in the winter and stuff grows. No rain
all summer, things dry out. The killer is the October-ish period when
the winds shift from west/damp to east/hot-and-dry. Then the November
rains fix things.

One day in 1991, we noticed a funny smell, and then ash started
falling in our back yard. It was this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_Fire

Near our house, on Bernal Heights, we could look across the Bay at the
Oakland hills. The whole horizon looked to be on fire.

John


I'm glad I don't live in California.

You read the newspapers too much. Stay away from the obvious hellholes
and tourist traps, and it's a great, beautiful place.

When I decided to leave New Orleans, I could have gone anywhere. I
researched the USA, and traveled a lot, before I picked San Francisco.
It's physically spectacular, great weather, clean air and water, few
allergens, multicultural, great food, smart goofy people. It's a great
place to be weird.

There is also the "am I good enough to make it there?" thing. For some
people, that's New York. In electronics, it's Silicon Valley.

John


Must be why ALL of the major semiconductor houses are locating design
centers in Arizona ??

...Jim Thompson

Literally all?

Yep. At least ALL of the ones that would be considered "household
words".


Of course, housing costs half or maybe 1/3 in the burbs of Arizona as
compared to Palo Alto.

Probably even less than that. A quick peek at today's pricing (I get
a weekly R/E report) shows $87 - $95 per sq.ft... 3300+ sq.ft. on 1/4
acre lots.

There's just nowhere to expand on the SF
Peninsula, but there's unlimited land in places like Texas. Sure, it's
easier to hire where people can afford to live.

Naaaah! Really ?:-)


California still attracts a lot of talent from around the world, and
some serious electronics and biotech and software stuff gets done
here. Google, for instance, does its thinking here, and plops data
centers where they are cheaper. It's sort of paradoxical (or is it
axiomatic?) that it's cheap to throw up a high-tech engineering
facility near affordable housing in, say, Opelousas Louisiana, but
nobody does.

John

Anyone who lives in California deserves it ;-)

There's nothing you can get in California that I can't get in Arizona,
cheaper and with easier access. I absolutely despise crowding and
masses of people.

...Jim Thompson

And I don't need to buy a cabin in Truckee to be surrounded by nature
;-)

...Jim Thompson

But I get more nature!

In the city, we live two blocks from a real canyon, so we have birds
from hummers to hawks, and all sorts of small furry things, lately
including coyotes. We have to go up to the mountains for the deer and
bears.

I like both, the city and the woods. What I can't stand are the burbs,
the clusters of developments, the endless matrix of Home Depots and
McDonalds and Starbucks and U-Store places.

We were sitting in Mary Belle's, in Auburn, absorbing their
astonishing food, when the owner came by and started a conversation.
We observed that you can get great food in most big cities, and great
food in most small towns, but mostly chain junk food in the burbs.

John




.

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