#wineandwin

As much as I love a good sunset, I think after the sun sets is when the magic begins. 

I ended up grabbing this faint lens flare at the beach last night, was excited to have something to submit here! :)

Under The Big Black Sun sounds cool

I’m about 30% into it right now and it’s been really amazing so far. It’s not just a book about the punk scene but by the main people in it with chapters written by John Doe and Exene Cervenka (of X), Jane Wiedlin (of the Go Gos), Plesant Gehman, Henry Rollins (Black Flag) and more. 

It’s basically a who’s who and a what’s what of the scene, from Bomp! records in the Valley to Lifeguard Tower 26 at Santa Monica and the Masque club in West Hollywood. 

Heart shaped rock I found on the beach on Valentine’s Day!

Is sustained good...? Very worried about Ventura over here. ��

That’s actually a really good question. Normally around this time of the year, we have sustained (meaning constant) winds around 1-5 miles per hour. A nice gentle breeze with variable gusts up to 10. 

When you have santa ana  winds that are constant at 46mph, that’s a constant stream of fast moving, super dry air coming off the desert acting like a blow torch for these fires. Thats why you have the massive humidity drop and the extreme fire behavior. 

What you also get is gusts up to 70+mph which is hurricane force. It makes it incredibly dangerous to fight fires in those conditions as handcrews cannot be supported by fixed wing aircraft, and helicopters can also be grounded. Water drops also get scattered before they even hit the ground, which takes away and important tool from the firefighters toolbox.

What we’re seeing on the Rye, Creek, and Thomas fires is fire behavior similar to what parts of Australia get during their worst fires. While the fuel load is high, relative temperatures are still wintery low, but what is different, and something I’ve never encountered in over 20+ years fighting wildfires in SoCal, is the preheating ignition that we’re seeing. 

The winds are so fast, and so dry, it’s literally sucking all the fuel moisture out of the vegetation and it’s carrying the heat from the fires with it, like a lateral blowtorch. You’re not seeing the typical embers spotting in front of the flame front like normal, but instead a different type of ignition from the radiant heat being carried. 

As of the last update, the fire has hit the ocean in Ventura.. it’s on both sides of the 101. On the fire I’m at, we’ve got a little break but it’s looking like it’ll head toward Simi Valley and follow the Old/Grand Prix burn pattern of 2003. 

The Rye fire is the one that could be most damaging ecologically if it follows the Day Fire burn pattern as that will take it right through the protected condor area. The problem with that part of the wilderness is you have to let the fire burn. Dozers cannot cut through that area due to the protected ecosystem, and even retardant can cause fish kill and water pollution in that vital watershed. 

Fire, for all intents and purposes is a natural element of the california landscape. What is unnatural is our modifications to the forests in regard to fuel load. A normal healthy natural forest should have no more than 20-40 trees per stand, we have as much as 300-600 in many areas. A normal California forest should allow you to walk easily between trees with a lot of daylight penetration and sparse floor covering. We don’t have that because of management practices that created an unnatural mixed forest type that has been devastated by both climate change and bark beetle infestation. 

Uhm. Do they price Match other stores as well??

Yup Yup! I even had a manager price match amazon, though they rarely do that. I think the fact that I was about to spend 300 bucks made him more willing to give me the discount!