Skip, are you saying that “flaming” is inappropriate for this thread? 
For shame, sir!
There are days when I’m not sure if I should be proud of you or if I should disavow any knowledge of you. 
Scripps Ranch was repopulated yesterday, and it’s good to be back home. I was most worried about Astroboy14, but it seems like his place is safe … for the moment at least.
I was happy to see what guizot said about San Diego and truly hope that he when he left he took someone with him.
I appreciate your apology.
“People who wear shorts in cold weather” is not what “hick” or “redneck” means to me. Now that you’ve explained it, I guess I can see, “San Diegans act like Southerners–they just don’t understand cold weather!” Although that specific accusation seems rather bizarre to me; when I first moved here from the East Coast, I was the one wearing a T-shirt and shorts in 60 degree weather, because 60 degrees was just not cold. I remember in elementary school in the DC area, if it was announced that it would be 60 degrees on a winter day, we would scream and cheer on the bus the whole way to school. Seems to me that people who have lived here longer are the ones who start bundling up like POWs in Siberia when it gets below 70–even I’ve started doing it–and the ones who wear shorts in “cold” weather are the Easterners, to whom our “cold” weather is not actually cold. YMMV, and apparently does.
And yes, I did take it as a personal insult. The impression I got was “Man, I lived in San Diego for a couple of years and lemme tell ya, it’s just a bunch of hicks down there”, not “I was born and raised in San Diego, and I always thought the way people down there handled cold weather was ridiculous”. It’s like if I wandered into a thread about a natural disaster in Texas and said “Texans are the biggest hicks I’ve ever seen”. I myself might drop a bomb like that in a more jocular context, having lived in Texas for a short time, but in a thread about how the people of that region are suffering due to something beyond their control, I’d like to think I would be quickly lambasted.
Will do.
Sorry, I’m just a little…hot under the collar this week.
Your offense, fetus, was completely understandable. I was only trying to explain the feeling, which several San Diegans have expressed to me, and which I grew up with. They say: “San Diego is a big town, with a small town mentality.” Friends, co-workers, and even a bus driver, have said the same thing to me.
I never meant to say that you, or many other people born elsewhere are “hicks.” In fact, people who were NOT born in San Diego often seem to me the most interesting and dynamic.
Mike Davis lives in Hillcrest (I don’t know where he’s from.). He has written a lot about fires, especially in Malibu, and he has said, “Let Malibu burn.” Harsh words, but getting to my point: should people be putting up expensive estates in these fire-prone places? I don’t know. I think many houses that burned down were those that didn’t heed firefighter advice about clearing brush, etc.
Well, I don’t spend that much time down there now, but my mileage does vary. I’ve seen people wearing shorts in cold weather; but sometimes I think it’s because they don’t have anything other than shorts!
Well, yeah, “cold” for us is a completely different thing. But still, we don’t often use central heating that pumps up the house temperature in winter. My sister, who now lives in NYC, freezes when she comes to San Diego at Christmas, because the house isn’t heated. Why don’t they heat it? Because they’re in San Diego, of course!
I know you’ve been there for a long time, and I also know that a lot of people are in San Diego making it a more cosmopolitan and interesting city. I just meant to say that you’re fighting an uphill battle; but all the more power to you. I shouldn’t have used the term “hick town,” because most see it as condescending. But I wasn’t talking about any particular people–just the general atmosphere, and my experience growing up there.
I completely understand. It was inappropriate for me to say that in this thread. Again, I apologize.
Are you still in Rancho Bernado? You were supposed to evacuate a couple days ago… 
Sorry. I never meant to be “mean.” I just meant to say that the culture of San Diego is myopic. If you where turtlenecks below 70, then, well I don’t what to say.
This thread is about the fires, but if anyone wants to discuss the parochial nature of San Diego (the 7th largest city in the country), then bring it on. I’ve got lots of ammo.
(accidental double post)
Gawking bystander here; would just like to observe that it’s delightful to see misunderstandings resolved in a civilized way. You [guizot, fetus] give me hope. Thank you, genuinely.
Generally the media seems to be telling me the fires are getting under control, balance tipping, winds relaxing, etc. – does it look that way to those of you there?
OK, fair enough. Although the “big city mentality” is there, if you look for it. Its prevalence is certainly disproportionately small for its actual size, though.
Back when it was just a Malibu fire, I heard a bit of a debate about this on KFI (I really don’t listen to it that much, I was just in a car with that station on for a while that day). Someone made a pretty good argument, to wit: People ask why you would live in a fire-prone area like that, but then again, why live in a flood plain? Why live under sea level? Why live in a hurricane area? Why live where tornadoes hit with some regularity? Because people want to live in beautiful places that offer the lifestyle they need. No place is completely safe.
Yeah, that mentality bugs me. “We don’t need heating and air conditioning–this is San Diego!” Bullshit.
There is that. I know I was in for a rude surprise when I visited relatives in Utah in December (ETA: not this December, which was actually a record cold one here in San Diego), after living in San Diego for about 8 years. I ended up having just enough warm clothing not to freeze my ass off, but just barely, and not all of it was in good repair.
Well, it’s been on and off. When you hear something like that, they should be adding “for the next couple of hours, anyway”. So far, a typical day will have several steps forward and several steps backward for the firefighters. Right now, as in, right this moment, we’re losing. The Jamacha fire is burning parallel to the Witch fire and it’s looking more and more possible that they’ll merge into one gigantic motherfucking wall of flames, at which point much of the city of San Diego itself may be fucked.
I received emails to go back to work on Thursday. We really could have been at work the whole whole time but nobody wanted to call people into work and be wrong so those of us who did not evacuate telecommuted. I just came back from dinner with my neighbors and their horses are back to the Sorento Valley stables after going to Del Mar fair grounds. The relatives staying with us went home Tuesday.
The winds have died down a lot and that was really the entire problem. When the winds are high it is hard to fight fires and they have to evacuate a lot of area because things are so volatile. Monday morning we went out to absent a relatives’ house to get prized possessions and the wind was blowing like crazy. Yesterday and today reports from there (56 and I-15) are calm winds.
Some de-energized power transmission lines are back up so the danger of power going down to San Diego is greatly reduced.
I still have friends that are evacuated with little knowledge if there is somewhere to return to but for the most part things are better.
The Malibu, Buckweed and Stevenson Ranch fires are being reported as 100% contained.
We still have the Mt. Palomar fire north of our house. I’m back at work today for the first time since Sunday, but watching the news closely in case I have to dash home and pack up the kitties again.
We’re not in the clear quite yet[sup]*[/sup], but it is looking better so far. I’ll second fetus though: “for the next couple of hours, anyway”
[sup]Aw, who am I kidding? Bush is here!! WE’RE SAVED!![/sup]
I’m in San Diego, but not in an area that’s affected except by being near a couple of evacuation locations. It’s still very smokey and dusty, though, not to mention hot. The only thing that’s really affected me much was the fact that they closed my office on Monday and all schools for the whole week. At least I got some unpacking done. We just moved from one apartment to another, and I’m selfishly glad that we’re not searching for new housing right now!
I agree that there are definitely “big city mentalities” in San Diego. But they’re still pockets. I would like to see them expand–a lot.
Yeah, I lived in Caribbean Colombia for almost two years, and when I came back to LA, it was damn cold–for me, at least.
We have a house in Crestline which is about 10 mi. west of Arrowhead village. The Arrowhead fire has burned over 100 houses but hasn’t reached Crestline.
Part of Crestline was under a recommended evacuation order and there is a night curfew.
Our son lives in our house and is attending college in San Bernardino. He can’t get to class because although he could get down there he couldn’t come back. The only roads into the area are closed to all but emergency vehicles going up into the mountains. Anyone at all can go down, but once down you are stuck there.
I phoned just a little while ago and things are quieting down. There are still helicopters and tankers once in a while but that has slacked off. For a while the sky was full of them, even a couple of DC-10 tankers were working the aread on Monday.
Things in the Crestline area are fine, the wind is down and a southwest wind is expected. That will blow the fire back into burned out areas which is good. However, it’s not so good for those on the northeast edge of the fire area.
I value** fetus** as one of the most interesting contributers to this board. S/he lives where I grew up. I’d like to hear more from his/her point of view.
Awww, thanks! (I’m a he, BTW.)