10.24.2007

Ring of fire


It's gross here. Getting grosser as the day progresses.

There is good news as far as the fires go. They are bringing some of them under control.

No one I know has lost a house or anything and I live far away from any of the burn areas.
The photo is a view from the parking garage at work looking toward the area of the Orange County fire.

It just gives you an idea of the air here.

I feel so bad for the people affected by this.

It's not all Malibu and movie stars.

These are real families losing their homes.

I heard a story on the radio about a family that got out fine, but had to leave pets behind. Apparently they have a real menagerie of about 50 pets. They just had no way to get them all out of there.

Those are the stories that make me the saddest.

I just hate to hear about animals being caught up in that stuff. In our human dramas and disasters.

There was a story about a guy who committed suicide by driving his car off a cliff on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. He had his dog in the car and the dog died, too.

Why? That was what I wanted to know. Why did he have to take the dog with him?

Is that skewed? Or am I normal for thinking this way?

10 comments:

Jim Thomsen said...

Maybe he thought the dog would be lost and unhappy without him?

I have to say, I'm surprised SoCal hasn't been destroyed by some form of natural disaster long ago. The confluence of dry weather, extreme heat, crumbling tectonic plates and the certainty of God's righteous wrath should have ravaged the region long ago. It just doesn't seem like a safe bet on which to stake your long-term life's plans.

Atypical California Girl said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Atypical California Girl said...

Jim, I really want to think you are being sarcastic about that God's wrath bullshit.
Because that is like saying it was God's wrath that took out New Orleans in a hurricane or kills people in floods in Washington or turns homes into pretzels in tornados.
So I really hope that was sarcasm.

Jim Thomsen said...

It was.

Atypical California Girl said...

Whew!

Angela said...

Painful. Really painful. My heart hurts for everyone affected. The story about the fellow in the car with his dog is just heartbreaking. I hope the fires are done SOON!

Lou said...

I'm so sad about these fires. I am happy that you are safe!

Atypical California Girl said...

Thanks for the good thoughts Lou and Angela.
I am lucky enough to be in a part of L.A. / So Cal that isn't on fire.

Lou said...

I know what you mean about animals though. Maybe I'm weird, but I always feel worse for animals who are suffering than humans because animals don't know what's going on. At least humans can understand.

Wordnerdy said...

You're right on about the guy and his dog. Maybe he rationalized it with thoughts about animals in post-Katrina NOLA, but still. Over a cliff?

As for Jim's first comment... he's on a roll. He recently insulted Fla la land in the ACES discussion board.

Yes, there are fundamentalists praising catastrophes as the work of God. And as long as rational people remind the world that those other people are irrational, we should all be OK.