More Fire Pics From Yesterday

Scenes From My Backyard 10/22/07

The Winds Keep A Blowin'.......

The wind has been blowing pretty hard here the past couple of days. My neighbor came and knocked on my door this afternoon to let me know my tree had fallen on my car. I probably would have never noticed until tonight when I went out to put my trashcans on the curb. My brother and I just spent the last couple of hours cutting it up and moving it off my car.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mom's birthday. She was born on September 1, 1946. She is the youngest of five children. She was Los Angeles born, but has lived all over the world. She lived in the Middle East while she was a girl, and then followed my dad around (usually to England) during his career in the military, only to settle down back in So Cal when my Dad retired.

My Mom didn't have it easy by any means. She had two babies by the time she was 21, and was living in a foriegn country, poor and married to the Air Force as well as my Dad. My life was infinitely easier than hers. I treasure the fact that both of my parents are relatively young (61 and 62 to my 42) because I consider them my friends as well as my parents. We are probably closer than most because we spent so much time as a nuclear family far away from the rst of our relatives.

She shares her exact birthday with Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees. I don't how she feels about that, or even if she is aware of it. But I'll dedicate this one to her anyway.

We're #1!!!!!!!

For most traffic deaths caused by agrressive drivers that is. Hell, I could have told them that. San Bernardino-Riverside had 13.4 deaths per 100,000 people in 1996, the year studied. The next highest area was Tampa-St. Petersburg at 9.5 per 100,000. That means we were almost a third again more dangerous than the next most dangerous area. Two factors weighed into these figures. First, in 1996, the Inland Empire still had relatively low population levels. (but even in absolute numbers we beat Tampa-St. Pete. 178-177, but several areas further down were in the 200's) Our population rates were extremely low compared to the miles of freeway in the area, which leads to the second factor, the Inland Empire is basically a throughway for people going somewhere else. There is a large amount of L.A.-Las Vegas traffic (and vice-versa) and increasing amount of L.A.-Phoenix traffic and hellacious numbers of commuters going into L.A. and Orange County. Then we have the resort traffic on their way to Big Bear and out to Palm Springs.

Another Sign I'm Getting Old....

I was out in the yard with my yard guy talking about future projects when I tripped and fell when going down one of my slopes. Now I'm a big guy...and I have a lot of grey hair...but this guy was acting like I was a basket case. You can tell he thought I had broken something., or done myself a serious injury. I will admit the experience wasn't pleasant...but I'm not that far gone.


Am I?

Newtonian Air Conditioner

My air conditioner must have been boning up on its Newtonian physics lately. When it's off, it won't turn on. When it's on, it won't turn off.

Damn universal education.

Fire

There has been a pretty large fire in my area today. It's been burning for several hours. I snapped some pictures a couple of hours ago when I was checking to see things. There are no police cars or fire engines in my neighborhood yet..so we're still safe. Everything smells like smoke though.

The first photo is closer to my house. It's about a half mile south of my house, and I am looking south. The hill this fire is on is seperated from the hill my house is on by a four lane road. The fire never jumped the road. The second photo is almost 180 degrees from the first one...and I am looking north. None of the houses here were burnt, but the brush all around them was.

Splurgy Splurge Splurge!

Well I have gone and done it. I have just bought a big screen HDTV. It's a 56 inch, 1080p, rear projection DLP. 1080p is supposed to be the top of the line in picture quality, and DLP seems to be the best of the big screen technologies.

I also bought a stand to place it on.

Lastly, I bought a up-converting DVD player, designed to take standard DVDs and upgrade the image to HD quality.

When I contacted my cable company today to ask about HD cable, I got some other interesting information. Seems like that if I switch my phone over to them, they will upgrade my current cable package, upgrade my current internet package, and provide exactly the same phone service as my phone company (with my current phone number) for only $10 more a month than what I am paying now, and the deal is guaranteed for 12 months.

Then when my TV gets here, and I upgrade to HD, with a package of HD channels and a HD DVR, I will still be paying less all in than I am currently paying for cable and phone today.

Don't hate me.

Iron Chef San Bernardino

One of the many trials of bachelor living, especially when you are truly living alone, is cooking. Fast food and food from a can gets tired real quick. But I am making progress. Earlier this month I finally perfected a spaghetti recipe I really like. It produces lots of leftovers also, which is a bonus for bachelors. (this stuff is even better reheated.)

When I woke up this morning, I didn't even really know how to boil an egg. However during the course of the day I not only taught myself how to properly boil an egg, but also how to make an extremely delicious deviled egg.

Look out Morimoto, I'm coming for you..........

Christmas in SoCal

It's December 18. It's 68 degrees and sunny. It's a little windy, but that's common for the area. Given how much I hate the cold, days like this remind me why I put up with all the crap living in SoCal produces.