Steve Jobs in the Sky

The Fire We Dodged, Almost

This is a picture taken from my back yard on June 1, 2011.   We are looking at a plume of heat and smoke from the approaching Wallow Fire.  At this point the fire was about 2 miles away.  We know now that the fire started when a pair of campers left their camp and their fire, to hike into the forest.  That camp fire eventually burned over a half million acres of forest, destroying 32 homes, four businesses, and 36 other buildings.  The blaze cost more than $79 million to extinguish.

Alpine was evacuated for about three weeks.  During that time the Alpine Fire Department worked night and day and with the help of some municipal fire crews from other parts of the country managed to deal with the burning embers that continued to threaten homes.  Without that effort the loss of homes would have been over a hundred.

During much of the evacuation time Alpine was without electricity.  That meant that refrigerators and freezers stopped working and residents were not able to get back to empty them.  Residents returned to refrigerators and freezers full of rotting and stinking food and meat.  The food was discarded but there is no way to remove the stink from the appliances.  So a resident could easily loose several hundred dollars worth of food and be faced with replacing appliances with prices easily ranging from $500 for a stand alone freezer to $1200 and up for refrigerators.  Add to that the loss of income during the evacuation, and the cost of living away from home for  three weeks.

Environmentalists have worked hard to pass legislation to keep loggers out of the forest and to limit travel in the forest.  Part of the motivation being to protect endangered species, like the spotted owl.  In the end about half of the spotted owl nesting sites were destroyed by the fire.  Had the forest been thinned by logging much of the fuel that made this fire almost impossible to control might have been removed.  That in itself may not have prevented the fire, but it certainly would have made it easier to contain.  It's about time for bringing common sense to forest management, and to protecting endangered species and their habitat
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December 26 - Maybe Next Spring

Somewhere, under the snow and between the trees lies my 200 ft driveway.

The good news is that I have a mighty snowblower. With it I can clear the snow away and find my driveway.

The bad news is that the day before Christmas the snowblower choked on a big rock and completely disabled itself.

The good news is that I have a fix-it-at-your-house warranty that runs till February of 1911. The repairman was scheduled to fix it today.

The bad news is that the repairman can’t come. Why? Well, because it is snowing.

Think about that. I live on a mountain at 8000 ft altitude. If it is snowing anywhere in Arizona, it is snowing here. When do I need a snow blower? When it's snowing. When's he gonna come? When it's done snowing. Maybe next spring.

December 21 - Many Are Cold But Few Are Frozen

Six AM finds me out in the workshop this morning, trying to finish up the paint job on a big Santa project. Outside temperature is a cool 28, inside somewhere in the high 40's so first job is to fire up the wood stove, get the temps up to something reasonable for painting.

My wirelesss internet reaches from the house to the workshop, so my laptop sits in a protected corner and pulls in public radio WERU from Bluehill and Bangor Maine. One degree there, blizzard warnings, 12 inches of snow coming, coastal flood warnings. Brrrr.

And now that the fire's crackling, and hands, and hopefully paint, have warmed it's time to go to work.

Many are cold but few are frozen.

December 13 -Rescued Eagle

Mixed feelings about this one. Took this picture Saturday at the Fourth Street Fair in Tucson. A group from Colorado, who rescue injured birds and travel with some of the birds to educate and raise awareness were showing off this eagle and several other rescued birds. This four year old female bald eagle has an injured a wing which makes it impossible for her to fly and hunt. I like the idea of rescuing the bird and rehabbing if possible. I don't like the idea of a displaying the bird in a traveling show. For ten dollars you could get your picture taken with the bird.

Reminded me of a story about Geronimo, the Apache chief, who was captured and displayed at the St. Louis World's Fair (That was 1904). If you had been there you could have purchased a picture of Geronimo for 25 cents. Geronimo got to keep 10 cents.

Don't think I'd like to be on display in a traveling show.

December 10 - Snow and the Secret of Happiness

The snow shovel is the secret of happiness, or so says our funny friend Garrison Keillor. This is an older column, November 19, 2008, but it speaks to me as I try to jump start this old body and venture out this morning. I know it will be good for me. A couple mile hike in the snow will be just what the doctor ordered, so invigorating. The truth is I really do like snow, on Christmas cards. Garrison will tell you more.

Football Fun

Garrison Keillor is a funny man. Here is the first paragraph from his December 3 column.

Dec. 3, 2008 | I've been trying not to think about the man and woman from Iowa who had sex in the men's room at the Iowa-Minnesota football game in Minneapolis a week ago and to think about the environment instead, or the future of American fiction, but it is hard to put something like lavatory sex out of your mind. And the environmental impact is slight. Some paper towels, that's about it.

Click on Garrison for the rest of the story.