San Diego In Flames

The Cedar fire was bad. Since about 8:00 or so this morning, I've felt like this fire is much worse.

Four years ago I took a trip to Sedona, Arizona. Great place. On the way back we were stopped on the highway due to the Ceder Fire. The sky to the northwest was orange from the flames. The wind was blowing pretty hard. I remember thinking that the police didn't really know what was going on. I u-turned and drove the other way... no reason to stay within a mile of the fire while stuck on a highway.

Yesterday, Sunday morning October 20, I was south of Rosarito, in Baja California, Mexico. I guess the Santa Annas make me travel. At 7:00 AM the sky was clear and it was warm and beautiful. At around 8:00 a fog rolled in. By 9:00, the wind had kicked up and it was blowing the patio furniture around. We left at 9:38 AM. I looked at the clock as we pulled out.

We drove north from Rosarito, the dust was whipping up everywhere and we couldn't even see the ocean. There were those giant dust ball plants that roll down the street blowing all over. We discussed how in San Diego you forget that we live in a desert, but in Baja, not everything has been planted over and mulched and paved. In Baja you get a real sense of how powerful the Santa Annas are.

Here's what my friend Laura from DC, who is experiencing her first fire had to say:

People - this fire stuff is very strange and very new to me. I can't believe it.

What do you think will happen? The fire won't come down to us will it? I know you can't really predict that, but there is no precedent for it is there?

Its eerie how this is like a East Coast snow storm - but with more deadly and damaging effects.

LT

Here's a telling screenshot of an Instant Message conversation I just had with my co-worker Daniel:

Frustration and Action

My friend Laura told me about a bottled water company that uses 30% recycled plastic to make its bottles and promotes this fact...

bleh.

Simplifying

Lets see if I can get this posted before my laptop battery dies. Wow, that strangely appropriate.

Dave of Borrego Solar helped me see that it doesn't make sense to have batteries back at the house to store the sun's energy and then feed it into my vehicle. This "big battery backup storage" plan doesn't make sense for a variety of reasons, but basically I can continue to be tied to the utility grid and skip the batteries. I'll feed the grid with solar power from my home during the day, when my neighbors need it most, and then "buy" or get it back from the grid at night when my neighbors are asleep and energy is more plentiful. I save on the batteries. The grid/utility/ratepayers save (a tiny amount, but something) by receiving my energy during peak usage, and the earth wins because it doesn't need to cough up that much more lithium or lead or whatever for the battery. Pretty obvious, but sometimes it's easy to lose site of the real goal while trying to "solve the problem properly". Thanks Dave!