January 3, 2001

1:04 PM

While a lot of you are shoveling snow, we in San Diego are getting brushfires. I can smell the smoke from 30 miles away.
posted by Steven Den Beste (10 comments total)

I also live in San Diego. When I left the house this morning, you could see an enormous amount of smoke spreading out from the north. Tiny flakes of white ash were precipitating, and the air smelled perfumed with incense of all things. Yucko. It was only until I sat down at my computer that I learned that it was not a bad attack of mutant smog. Sorry, I'm new.
posted by rschram at 1:15 PM on January 3, 2001

I'm north of the city, and my first reaction when I saw it was that LA's air had been blown down here by a freak wind.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 1:20 PM on January 3, 2001

The sky was blood red this mourning. One of my coworkers came to me in a panic thinking that the end of the world was near. You know - Third millennium, sun turning to blood, the sky falling, etc. etc. I actually had to spend several minutes soothing the fellow.

Some people should really stay away from the Old Testament.

Here's a picture.
posted by y6y6y6 at 1:41 PM on January 3, 2001

My sister called me this afternoon (I'm in AZ, she's in SD), and was jabbering something about her boat being covered in ash when she woke up. I figured she was hallucinating, heh.
posted by pnevares at 2:26 PM on January 3, 2001

God I love San Diego. 72 degrees and sunny in freakin' JANUARY, with a nice natural shade from the mile-high plumes of smoke and ash. I swear that when I walked out to my car this morning I thought those winter storms had come our way.. but it was just fucking ash. What a gyp.
posted by afx114 at 3:35 PM on January 3, 2001

A couple years ago in Florida there were some fires up in the Orlando area - 200 miles away in Delray Beach (where I lived) the skies were thick with smoke and practically unbreathable. Crazy.
posted by owillis at 5:43 PM on January 3, 2001

Why do people build trophy homes on beachfront property known to be subject to erosion? Why do they build them in areas known to have avalanches?

Because people don't take the long view.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 11:14 PM on January 3, 2001

[aaron] Why do people choose to build expensive trophy homes in areas known for constant windy brushfires?

[Steven Den Beste] Why do people build trophy homes on beachfront property known to be subject to erosion? Why do they build them in areas known to have avalanches?

Why do people build trophy homes in areas known to be subject to earthquakes? Is there a place left in southern California where you can build a "trophy home" that isn't subject to natural disaster?

posted by daveadams at 7:41 AM on January 4, 2001

Because they have good insurance?
posted by dhartung at 4:54 PM on January 4, 2001