The heat is on

(August 30, 2007)

We are having some of the worst heat of the year, and there have been some nasty brush fires nearby. Certain areas of the foothills are in a "let burn condition" so the fires aren't even fought. Non-populated areas of the Angelus National Forest are burning without being checked.

The combo of the heat and the smoke and one of our patented inversion layers have created a smog siege like the kind we used to get in the '70s. The CoH folks are now trying to figure out how to put more people up indoors, particularly people who have had cardio/pulmonary problems.

We have had a Black Bear incursion. I'm trying to find pictures and have been unsuccessful so far but a mother bear and her cub got pretty close to us. The new fence was a successful barrier, and a retired cop caregiver shooting over their heads with a shotgun effectively scared them from our compound. They were beautiful, though...ruddy cinnamon fur and soulful amber eyes.

Some important things you need to know about the Watts Bombing:

1.) Lt. Logan is disavowing, through his Navy-provided defender, any ties between White Supremacy or any other hate group, and is loudly claiming that the bombing was ordered by higher-ups. He does affirm his membership in a "Traditionalist LDS" church in Arizona, but is not revealing which of the secretive groups it is.

2.) There is a huge infusion of human-power and materiel going to fixing the Alameda Corridor. Again, the suggestion I've been hearing is that the Chinese are directly leaning on the G. W. Bush administration to fix the rail link yesterday. The freeways will have to wait, as will the light rail.

3.) Scuttlebutt has it that some of the workers on the Alameda Corridor are dressed in orange jumpsuits. They aren't wearing the rest of the X-Wing Pilot costume so I would have to assume this is prison labor. Some say that the jumpsuits are either marked "FEMA" or "DHS" on the back. This would suggest they are denizens of the rumored relocation camps.

4.) I have gotten a weird email in my box. It's written with text message abbreviations so it's going to require some very thoughtful reading to parse. It comes from a guy who calls himself "especialisto X (equis)" and it comes from a Cingular account. He says this is his first and last communique. I may post it as is.

A note related to my last post: KNBC 4 Los Angeles, and I'm assuming KMEX 34 as well, are now off the air. This is a biggie because they are (were?) an owned-and-operated NBC outlet. So much for new Heroes episodes. Anyone know if NBC/Universal has gone bankrupt?