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.

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.

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.

Car Woes With Pep Boys

I took my car in on Tuesday morning to get a leaky radiator fixed.

4 days and:

a water pump,
4 new tires,
a front end alignment,
front brakes
leaky seals
A rusty timing chain
and $2,500 later....I still don't have my car back.

And I still have to stress over oil sludge because it turns out that Dodge put one of it's crappy 2002 2.7L engines in my 2003 Intrepid.

Update 11:30 A.M. 3/17/07: Still waiting on a part. From a dealership that is less than a mile away. No work yesterday, or any so far today. Now I'm starting to get pissed.

Update 7:15 P.M. 3/17/07: "The parts got here kinda late...it'll be done tomorrow". I went to this place because I got excellent service the last time I went. This time the service has sucked. I know my car has sat there with no work being done on it for at least two days, and probably three.

Update 6:00 P.M. 3/18/07: "Wrong part. The right part will be here in the morning, and we'll get on it first thing..." Un-Frackin'-believable.............

Update 5:30 P.M. 3/19/07: Surprise, surprise..no news yet. They are open until 9:00 PM, so I'll give them until 8:00 P.M. before I call and ask to talk to the manager.....

Update 8:00 P.M. 3/19/07: "When the guys from NAPA dropped off the thermostat the gasket wasn't in the box...it'll be first thing in the morning." 1) Why no phone call from them telling me they fracked up again? 2) Why the frack up? This is at least the third time they blamed the delay on either a wrong part or a misdelivered part. 3) NAPA Auto Parts (and who has heard of a parts supply store having to order parts from a different parts supply store?) is right down the damn street. Someone could have walked to get the right part. Given the crap I have had to put up with, the manager should have had someone get the right part, not wait for a delivery the next day. 4) Thermostat? This is the first time they've even mentioned the thermostat. How much more is this going to cost me?

I've changed the subject line on this post to reflect the company I've been dealing with. I've purposely not mentioned Pep Boys before, because up until now, I've never had a problem with them before. But thi is simply ridiculous. Not just the constant screw ups and delays, but the fact that they haven't even bothered to call me and tell me about any of this.

So, tomorrow is day #8, and at this rate I am definitely not holding my breath.

11:20 A.M. 3/20/07: No news yet...does this qualify as first thing in the morning? They (and NAPA) opened at 8:00 A.M.. It has officially been over a week at this point.

4:00 P.M. 3/20/07: I called them. Supposedly they are bleeding the system, and will test it to make sure it doesn't overheat. It will be ready tonight. Hopefully.

6:45 P.M. 3/20/07: Guess what? Another day, and another $400-$500. Now they have to replace the radiator. But they couldn't figure this out a week ago, even though I told them I had a problem with a leak, and overheating. This one trip to the repair shop is going to end up costing me as much, or more, than what I paid to buy each car I've owned until now. Unfracking believable. I can't believe how pissed I am right now.

12:30 P.M. 3/21/07: No word yet. I guess "first thing in the morning" didn't work out again.

1:15 P.M. 3/21/07: Well they just called to tell me the car is ready...here's hoping it's actually fixed.

4:30 P.M. 3/21/07: I have the car. They gave me a break on the bill..$2,500. I went and got my oil changed and my fuel injectors cleaned..another $100. Here's hoping they did everything right....

Crazy Weather

I had the air conditioner on last Saturday, and I nearly turned on the heater last night.

Don't you just love living in Southern California?

The Weather

Have you seen the storm hitting the East Coast today? They're expecting two feet in some places! Man what a bummer. Of course, it's only going to hit 83 out here, still I don't think I'll need a sweater.

Voter Apathy

I live in a city that had 185,000 residents in the year 2000. I'd bet we are a lot closer to 200,000 now. We elected our mayor last night. We only have 68,000 registered voters, and slightly over 14,000 bothered to vote yesterday. The man who won only received 9,000 votes! That is unbelievable!

It may be another ten years.......

It's been two days, so I can finally bring myself to write about this.

I was recently nagged by friends, family and colleagues into making an appointment to see a doctor. It's been at least ten years since I last saw one. So I made an appointment to get a physical in a January. In the mean time, I developed a case of celluitis (fancy word for skin infection) and thus made an appointment to get it looked at. "Well", the Doc said, "since you are here, we'll just do the physical now."

(What???!!! I haven't had time to build myself up mentally and emotionally for this.)

So the Doc throws me one of those hospital robes that doesn't even come close to covering me and says, "strip down to your skivvies!" He leaves and gives me privacy while I strip down (which makes no sense given what's coming up). He comes back a few minutes later, takes an oral history, listens to my heart and lungs etc, and then orders, "stand up and drop your skivvies!" (What no dinner first?)

He then precedes to give me a hernia test and "examine" (read feel up) my testicles. OK, I've had that done before for sports, but how many 40 year old teachers get hernias? Now I hear the dreaded command: "Turn around, bend over and put your elbows on the bed!"

Damn. I can't believe it has come to this.

He then proceeds to insert his finger in my rectum while telling me to relax. RELAX? What the hell was he talking about? Thankfully it was over quickly and he informed me that my prostrate was in great shape. (yeah, but how about my dignity Doc?)

All in all, it was the most action I've had in years, but he hasn't called me since.

I feel so used.

Earthquake!!!!!!

We just had a noticable earthquake. It didn't feel like much here.

Nov. 8, 2005 Election

Well here's my voting guide:

San Bernardino City Mayor- I know Chas very well, in fact I've worked with him a couple of times , once he was my boss, once I was his. Eventually He might make a great mayor, but not yet. My vote goes to Jim Penman.

Prop 73- Parental notification for a minor's abortion -yes. If a minor can't get a tattoo without permission, then why the hell should they be able to get an abortion?

Prop 74 - Teacher probationary period extended to five years-no. But not because it extends the time needed for tenure. It also removes protections from teachers who already have tenure.

Prop 75 - Paycheck Protection-yes. There is nothing wrong with forcing the unions to get permission to give our money to politicians.

Prop 76- State Spending and School Funding-no. It gives too much power to the governor.

Prop 77- Redistricting-yes. The gerrymandering in Calif. is out of control. Out of 153 elections last year, the incumbent party won 153.

Prop 78 & Prop 79- no on both. The price of drugs is none of the State's business.

Prop 80-no. I will never support the State restricting the rights of customers.

Measure S- No. Libraries are good things, but San Bernardino already collects enough taxes. They just need to spend them better.

Nature's Fireworks

We had some pretty impressive lightning storms last night. They woke me up around 3:30 A.M. I stayed awake, worrying about the power going out and nuking my alarm clock. I finally got about another hour of sleep before I got up in the morning. Hopefully this means that the oppressive heat is about to break.

San Bernardino - Fast Food Capital of the World

Not many people know that San Bernardino is the Fast Food capital of the world, but it is. First, the original, and still the greatest, fast food chain, McDonald's was founded here, on 14th & E streets. (sadly, the original building no longer exists, but there is a modest fast food museum there now) Early customers of McDonald's included the men who founded the fast food chains of: Taco Bell, Taco Tia, Del Taco, Naugles, Baker's and Der Weinerschnitzel. The man who operates the Sizzler chain, and has more Kentucky Fried Chicken francises than anyone else was also inspired by the original McDonald's. San Bernardino really should do more to develop and market this historical feature.

Earthquake!!!

Nothing major, but visible and audible shaking. Felt pretty close by. Sometimes I worry about living a mile from the San Andreas Fault, but most of the time I just ignore it. Now the questions, was this a precursor, and how big will the aftershocks be?

At least you can usually see a tornado coming.

Waterlogged

It has rained so much here in SoCal that the earthworms are crawling out of the lawn and onto my sidewalk. I know this happens in other places, but I have been living in this area since 1987, and this is the first time I have ever seen it happen here. Well so much for our drought.

Earthquakes

We just had two earthquakes. The first was pretty minor, but the second was fairly significant...as I live practically on top of the San Andreas fault, that can be worriesome. If this was not a local quake it must have been pretty big for it to feel the way it felt here.

The L.A. news channels aren't reacting so it was probably local. I wonder how long the aftershocks will last.

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.