Preparing for the move...going to be offline

(September 17, 2007)

We're going back to "Paranoia City" for a while to go through our stuff and figure out what goes with us and what stays. We will be camping out in our own apartment. We have survival rations thanks to my cousin. I don't know where he got the MREs but I'm not going to question our luck. MREs and granola bars, plus juice boxes. Hopefully we will augment our meals with local food.

If I absolutely need to have my fix of News From Outside, I can go by the Panorama City library. The WiFi access point is up, running, and robust, according to a friend of mine.

Richie is actually off of the chemo for a while because he's in Molecular Remission. He's had bone marrow taken and banked, because he might be getting an Autologous bone marrow transplant when we get back. They took the PICC line out of him. No more flushing the lines.

According to official LAPD data Mission Station and Van Nuys Station (they each patrol part of Panorama City) the immediate area is still a Green Zone. You don't want to venture into North Hills, particularly near the 405 and Nordhoff, but Panorama is relatively safe.

Oddly, one of the hottest Red Zones is West LA. My cousin is thinking of moving the family away from the Westside because there are a lot of bandits looking for wealthy Westsiders to roll there. The only safe spot is Santa Monica. True to the old "People's Republic of Santa Monica" tag for the place, the community has coalesced around the city and the City Council is specifically promoting community building. The Yuppies and the Dogtown have-nots are amazingly pulling together. Santa Monica is a Green Zone. However, it's ringed around with dangerous territory.

The Leimert Park area of Southern LA, not really that far away from the cordoned-off zone, is another Green Zone worth noting. Certain parts of Downtown are also Green Zones. Hollywood is a big fat Red Zone, though.

I tried to do a map but it's real hard because there are these little pockets of red in green, little pockets of green in red, etc.

One of the worst Red Zones, however, is the territory under the purview of Foothill Division, LAPD. This includes some areas near where we'll be. Pacoima is supposed to be a hellhole now. That's way close. Wish us luck.

And if you live here in SoCal, please: SOUND OFF. There was one guy in Valley Village who was blogging but he seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. I can't be the only person in the region holding down the fort.