Tuesday: A day to (continue to) cope with natural disasters.
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group gives Kossacks a safe place to check in, a daily diary where we can let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, earthquakes, or other such things that could keep us off DKos. It also allows us to find other Kossacks nearby for in-person checks when other methods of communication fail - a buddy system. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, earthquakes etc.), we and your buddy are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care!
IAN is a great group to join, and a good place to learn to write diaries. Drop one of us a Kosmail and ask to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime! We all share the publishing duties, and we welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!
We do have a diary schedule. But, when you are ready to write that diary, either post in thread or send FloridaSNMOM a Kosmail with the date. If you need someone to fill in, ditto. FloridaSNMOM is here on and off through the day usually from around 9:30 or 10 am eastern to around 11 pm eastern.
Monday: Crimson Quillfeather
Tuesday: ejoanna
Wednesday: Pam from Calif
Thursday: art ah zen
Friday: FloridaSNMOM
Saturday: Gwennedd
Sunday: loggersbrat
Vacaville is 50 miles from where I live. It has been hard hit by lightning-sparked wildfires.
More of the destruction in Vacaville, CA
Pt. Reyes National Seashore is even closer—and there fire is still raging through the hills. In fact, there are numerous fires in Northern CA, mainly caused by the (rare for this area) thunderstorms last week.
And Sunday overnight more such thunderstorms are forecast for NorCal. Now if these storms actually produced measurable rain, beyond a few hundreds of an inch overall—then they’d count as fire suppression. But it looks as if we’ll get, at most, just a few drops here and there.
Grrrrrr.
I am particularly sad about the fire destruction in Big Basin Redwoods State Park, south of San Francisco, in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Big Basin State Park, Santa Cruz, CA
That park is the oldest in the CA state park system, created in 1902. And it contained priceless stands of old growth redwoods. Much, including the park headquarters, below, is a charred remnant.
Big Basin Redwoods S.P.
I can’t get off this topic of CA wildfires til we get some kind of closure, at least for this year. But that may not conclusively happen until our rainy season starts in earnest. And that could be only in late November or in December.
The last 5 days or so, if I do go outside, I wear an N95 mask (cached away after last fall’s terrible fires.) And list my exposure. Plenty of medical evidence that exposure to this very smoky air compromises our immune systems. Thank God there’s no pandemic to make it worse, OMG-there-is!!!!!
Bad news for basic infrastructure
I don’t want to make this all about me. Just reporting that things are grim here right now.
They may have prison addresses, but they are our heroes!
Send some good thoughts for the state of California. We need them!
And this was a relatively “clear” day!
PS: We caught a break in the thunderstorms. Only a few lightning strikes.
