Fire in the Mountains

A DW friend lives in the mountains above Cohasset within the perimeter of the Park Fire, which has incinerated more than 560 miles in Butte, Shasta, Tehama, & Plumas Counties.

It will be a miracle if her house survives.

I am trying to wrap my head around what it feels like to lose a home to a fire.

And failing utterly.

###

The fire is arson.

The arsonist, some guy just released from prison. Served 19 years for robbery involving great bodily harm. There was also a previous conviction for lewd & lascivious acts involving a child under 14.

He was released to the care of his mother.

And apparently, his mother pissed him off.

Because he took her car, drove it to a gulley near a popular swimming hole in Chico’s Bidwell Park, doused it with gasoline, set it ablaze, & then pushed the burning car down the embankment—all in full view of the people at the swimming hole.

They immediately called firefighters & presumably did what they could to contain the flames.

But Northern California in the summertime is tinder waiting for a match.

###

Is this pure evil?

I mean, I don’t suppose the guy deliberately intended to start an event that would wreak havoc on so many lives—134 structures destroyed! No reported fatalities—yet: An awful lot of people live off the grid in those parts in trailers and campers along deeply rutted roads. It’s hard to imagine that some of those people didn’t die.

No, the guy was just really pissed off at his mother.

He still loved her!

Maybe even has a tattoo attesting to his love.

But he was really pissed off.

Decided to do something that would really show her.

###

My own little life continues to trickle more-or-less effortlessly enough down its little track. Though I need to become more disciplined about Remuneration.

I did a two-hour phone marathon with public-policy-Eleanor, trying to figure out what Trump meant with this incredibly weird pronouncement: Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.

I mean, what the fucking fuck?

And I began reading Dolly Alderton’s Everything I Know About Love, which is highly entertaining though not particularly insightful since it seems clear to me—if not yet to Dolly Alderton—that she’s gay.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30

Most Popular Tags

aging - 45 uses
annie - 47 uses
art - 41 uses
ben - 321 uses
books - 310 uses
california - 46 uses
car - 45 uses
cats - 60 uses
circus - 109 uses
covid-19 - 396 uses
current events - 69 uses
dating - 104 uses
dream - 66 uses
dreams - 368 uses
economics - 81 uses
exercise - 65 uses
facebook - 48 uses
family - 183 uses
friends - 691 uses
garden - 256 uses
health - 147 uses
history - 53 uses
hudson river valley - 250 uses
hudson valley - 38 uses
if you find this take it - 52 uses
iggy - 64 uses
introspection - 243 uses
ithaca - 57 uses
judaism - 38 uses
max - 477 uses
meezer - 43 uses
money - 89 uses
mother - 59 uses
movies - 334 uses
moving - 63 uses
new york city - 57 uses
politics - 720 uses
psychological depression - 83 uses
random stuff - 72 uses
robin - 603 uses
seasonal affective disorder - 41 uses
sex - 57 uses
slow burn - 299 uses
television - 151 uses
travel - 53 uses
volunteer - 335 uses
wallkill - 46 uses
weather - 423 uses
work - 220 uses
writing - 646 uses

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

rebeccmeister

I have an aunt and uncle (and cousins) who lost their house in Eastern Washington to a fire. I'd estimate it took around 2 years to get through some of the initial stages of dealing with it (just assembling clothes to wear, figuring out where to live, etc). Then there are the longer-term consequences. They most regretted all of the photos lost forever. That's why I now post photos on Flickr, where I still own them and where they can't all burn in a single conflagration.

One of my current rowing teammates is a wildfire transplant. She used to live in Nevada, but when everything burned, her family no longer saw the point of trying to rebuild there.

Anyway, that's how it goes. I can imagine many people are going to join the climate refugees as a result of that particular fire.

There have been two recent fires within the city of Riverside, one of which was about a mile from my brother's house, although it traveled away from where they live.

And that's a big part of why I have little to no interest in ever living in California again.

mallorys_camera

I can't imagine that degree of loss. But, yeah. All the documents I care about—photos, diaries, pieces of fiction—are all online.

asakiyume

I don’t suppose the guy deliberately intended to start an event that would wreak havoc on so many lives... No, the guy was just really pissed off at his mother.

Yeah, too many people have very little sense of other people's reality (by which I mean, the fact that other people are actually REAL, not just paintings on the backdrop of their lives). Also, a lot of people don't seem to think more than 10 minutes ahead of something. "Wow, she'll be so f•cking pissed off about the car." Yeah dude, and now you and she both have no way to get around anymore--brilliant. Oh yeah, and you've started a massive wildfire.

I mean Trump I guess figures that his supporters, at least, welcome the notion of his noble orangeness as president for life.

Yeah, it's really amazing the degree to which angry people don't think the consequences of their actions through.

president for life

That's certainly the implication. But I wonder if he intended it?

adoptedwriter

Fck that arsonist guy! No sympathy. Sounds like he clearly had some mental health-type issues. No excuse for destroying so many people's homes.
Oh, that Trump announcement...Gah!!!! Gag!!!!

Oh, yeah. Totally fuck that arsonist guy.

But I still wonder, What did he think was going to happen?

smokingboot

It sounds as though he meant it. Trump that is. Re the arsonist, maybe he didn't mean it. Maybe he wasn't thinking. Maybe he doesn't think beyond the gratification of what he feels in the moment. Clearly his mother can't stop him, no-one outside can stop him, and he won't or can't stop himself, so he needs to be somewhere where his thinking/not thinking never damages another person in any way.

Right. I don't think not meaning to set the fire makes him in any way not culpable. I'm just kinda shaking my head over his inability to think it through—over most people's inability to think through the consequences of their actions.

Yes, looking back on that comment, it occurs to me that my head has been fuggy and I missed your point.

The thoughtlessness is interesting. With most of us it does have limits but I've certainly done things which, in retrospect, made no sense at all. What did I think would happen? no answer probably because I didn't think in the first place. Why didn't I think in the first place? I wish I knew.

benicek

Remember that song in the film Popeye?

Hurray hurray Sweethaven
Flags are wavin'
Swept people from the sea
Safe from democracy
Sweeter than a melon tree
Put here for you and me
Sweethaven

Yah. Sigh. And yet half of the U.S. supports him.

What was the percentage turnout in the last election?

Sixty-six percent.

Which is really high for the U.S.

Still a third don’t care.

I suspect a large portion of the no-votes care. I think they just feel like nothing they do will make a difference.

I think that if those voters cannot even be bothered to help block someone as clearly insane as Trump then they really don’t care.

Mallory's Camera