Such widespread devastation throughout our beautiful Southern California region! The unprecedented wildfires are like nothing we’ve ever seen. And the official fire season has only now begun. Yes, we’re used to wildfires here but no, we never really get used to them. They are a fearsome danger every year, but never have there been so many (15 by some counts, more by others) raging all at the same time for a week. Several are not yet contained, still threatening thousands.
The bravery of those men and women fighting the fires cannot be overstated. The stubbornness of those who got in their way by staying beyond the time of mandatory or voluntary evacuations can be understood yet deplored. Many, of course, could not flee. They had no transportation or no help to get to it. It will be a mercy from Above if no more bodies are found. One friend commented that the burned-over area looks as though an asteroid had struck. Too vivid images look like a war zone. Not a few have said that perhaps the last days are now here. The shock in the voices of friends forced to flee to safety haunts one’s memory. I can believe their own personal nightmares will be recurring for a long time yet, even with vital spiritual and mental counseling.
And now the biggest nightmare of all is beginning, that of dealing with the insurance companies. Anyone who has ever filed an insurance claim for any kind of loss knows that you will be treated as though you are a criminal, as though the loss was your fault. As they say, “been there, done that.” It isn’t your friendly insurance agent you’ll be dealing with; it will be an adjustor and their job is to save the company’s money. In this type of tragedy, perhaps they could save their paranoia and vent it on the next arsonist they confront, not his victims.
If there’s any way you can stretch to possibly help the families and individuals who have lost homes or loved ones, please donate to your church or to the American Red Cross, and mark the donation as being for Southern California Fire Victims. God will bless you for your kindness.
www.shirleyannparker.com/discoveries.htm
Grapevines really talk! And I do mean the plant kind, not just the people kind.
I suspect most of us think the office grapevine got called that because grapevines spread rapidly, from a very small root to where they cover yards of concrete or brick wall, especially here in Southern California. If it’s true for an area that once was desert, prior to the massive aqueduct system, I’m sure it’s the same in other temperate or sub-tropical climates. Rumor does travel as rapidly as the leafy, and sometimes very aggressive, grapevine itself grows.
Every Fall this particular grapevine turns a riotous shade of yellow, orange and red leaves before dropping them all for the winter. In early Spring, the tender green shoots begin the process all over again. By late June, those leaves are a deep and shiny green, almost completely covering and decorating the cinder block walls around the backyard. Tiny purple-black fruit appears, but not before the even tinier, creamy yellow blossoms pop open.
I don’t know what’s going on, but there is a sound that is like the pattering of fairy raindrops throughout the grapevine. You can stand next to the grapevine and hear it! You can move further down the wall and still hear it! It’s not the buzz of honeybees. There were none in the vicinity, and with the terrible fungus that has already wiped out millions of commercial hives, let alone the wild colonies, there may not be many bees to be seen this year. (Please note that’s millions of hives lost, meaning billions of bees. This is a heartbreaker in the making. With worker bees leaving the colonies, we have very serious agricultural problems on the horizon because of this disaster. The queens, drones, and other remaining bees cannot survive alone. And they are desperately needed to pollinate our food crops.)
But whatever is producing the sound in the grapevine, I can assure you that the grapevine talks! I have heard it with my own ears.
www.shirleyannparker.com/discoveries.htm
Now that the worst of the spam onslaught seems to be taken care of, it’s time to get back to posting now and then. :-> It’s been quite a year already, with no end in sight to the attacks from those who are obviously jealous of people who actually do something with their God-given talents. Along the way, we have also drop-kicked incompetent plumbers, mindless drivers, neighbors brain-dead from massive boom boxes — and others from the lower end of the gene pool – into wishful oblivion.
It’s been a fascinating spring as well. Scorching hot much too early in the season. Early wildfires, some of them arson, and probably more to come. The mallard ducklings are back at the business park, though “they” seem to be removing them within days this year. One family of 15 was almost crushed to death while following “mom” up our long winding driveway. Many drivers stopped as the female debated on when it was safe to cross over to get clear up to the ornamental pond. Others care nothing for human life, with the animal kingdom not standing a chance, were it not for kind Providence in this case. Yes, the family completed their (at least) a mile walk from across a busy boulevard, through the 911 Command Center and on up through the business park to join Dad.
At home, we suddenly have a visiting California Bobcat (Felis rufus). It has the most beautiful rust-colored coat imaginable! The roughly 20 lb animal is not supposed to frequent metropolitan areas, but we are not that far from the foothills that burned last year and the year before. There is little food for a hunter up there now, and he (or she) has been killing young possums who venture out in the twilight and the dark. Besides, our overgrown fishpond provides water, and we’ve noticed a deep depression where an animal of that size could sleep now and then. I’m not sure how the cat gets along with the bands of coyotes who visit the neighborhood night after night! Former neighbors lost small dogs to the coyotes in the past two years, and neighbors down the street have lost several pet cats to the coyotes, who travel in family groups. I expect the bobcat to move on to the rest of its territory very shortly.
http://www.shirleyannparker.com/discoveries.htm
I never thought I’d see the day when I’d be sharing modern office space with so-called Norwegian Rats! This is the 21st Century, after all. Yet a variety of construction projects on the business campus, including a parking structure, seem to have disrupted the rats’ normal haunts. And if our building has them, undoubtedly the one directly in front of the in-progress parking structure has them somewhere, even if they’re down below, where the pipes and electrical boxes are located.
However, our building actually has them in the cubicles where we work each day. A month ago they were just running around at night, stealing energy bars and other goodies. Then they progressed to oatmeal packets. As they have become bolder, or more desperate, after food was taken home at night, they’ve been found after 6 a.m., then after 7 a.m., now after 8 a.m. And they run like racehorses! This past week, we discovered they’d chewed through bags of coffee. Next day, they gnawed on someone’s cough drops. That afternoon, I took my cough syrup home, since it’s in a plastic bottle. Visions of rats sitting in my chair, swigging on the stuff, were just too much.
Not to gross out anyone, but at least five rats have been trapped and killed during daylight hours. I’m sure the costs for the exterminators to visit each day are mounting, so our Facilities employees have been helping to check the traps. I notice they’re wearing rubber or synthetic gloves, like the cleaning staff are encouraged to use in bathrooms. In place of exterminator equipment, they carry boxes that look suspiciously like those that online booksellers use to ship small packages of books. (I’m sure they more likely come from the office supply business the company uses.)
As far as many employees are concerned, our biggest fear is that the rats may carry fleas that transmit disease. We’re definitely hoping someone will rid us of them quickly. Whether anyone has notified the health department or OSHA, I have no idea. Shutting the building down completely in an attempt to eradicate the vermin may not be at all feasible for the management of the business park itself. Other high-profile companies also occupy space in the same building. It would be interesting to know if the rats have walked up the next flights of stairs. More likely, they are running.
Till next time…
I’d be pleased to have you check out my other articles at eZineArticles.com where I am a platinum writer.
I don’t know all the facts about the wildlife visiting our large business park, but we’re surrounded by housing developments on three sides and an “unused” reservoir not too far from us on the other. Besides the small critturs that I’ve mentioned before, mallards come and go, with a little help from animal control now and then. (It may even be Fish & Game employees who come in, but from a distance, I’ve seen them with large nets attached to poles.) In addition to eight unattached male mallards, we’ve had two pairs of mallards this year. Each had as many as a dozen ducklings hatch this season. The fluffy young ones are a delight to watch, paddling furiously around the ornamental pond in the center green area of the complex. The pond is well supplied with plants, mosquito fish, and other inhabitants, and has a pretty strong current in places.
A security officer commented to me one lunch hour that the young ones don’t last long. We know there are predators at night, including coyotes, and probably feral cats. Animal control comes in, as needed, to move the survivors and the parents out to safer habitats. More stunning to learn was that the bachelor mallards attack the young of females who have made them angry by rejecting their advances. (Sounds a lot like the behavior of egotistical human males to me.) The mate will drive off any male that bothers his little family, as well as two-legged observors who get too close for comfort. One group of employees sitting at a nearby table was open-mouthed, when a rejected suitor paddled back, grabbed a duckling by the neck and held it under water, trying to drown it. The father of the duckling reacted furiously and drove the murderous-intent intruder away. Next day, some slightly older ducklings were present, three whose downy feathers had dropped out, allowing adult plumage to show. It looked as though the first mated pair had been moved back with their surviving youngsters, or had found their own way back!
Life’s dramas go on all around us, and we’re usually totally unaware of them. It’s such a privilege to be an observor.
www.shirleyannparker.com/discoveries.htm
If you live in a mobile home or know someone who does, be sure to check out this article by Linda Meckler at http://ezinearticles.com/?id=176772 It’s almost unbelievable what’s happening with so many mobile home parks.
The Coalition of MobileHome Owners - California has a brand new website at http://www.comocal.org/Home.asp with up-to-the-minute news about critical legislation that will impact your life. Check out the site rightaway! Don’t just live in fear of losing your home. To quote from the website, “Today CoMO-CAL has hundreds of members in Los Angeles County, and membership in other areas such as Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Riverside, Palm Springs is growing.” The more members they have, the stronger they become, and the more good they can do for you.
Live in a mobile home park, or planning to retire in one? Do you have friends or relatives who are worried sick about skyrocketing rents at their park, year after year? You need to find out what your and their rights are. Join with others who are fighting for a decent lifestyle at an affordable price.
The many problems are essentially the same in most mobile home parks throughout California. In addition to needed repairs that never get made, parks flood, rainy season after rainy season. A major injustice is that rents go up and up every year, often because the park has changed ownership without any warning. The problem is so bad that people are being forced to abandon their homes. However, even if they move out, they still have to keep paying through the nose. Rent control ordinances aren’t as common as people might think they are!
In the San Diego area, at least, a number of active groups are doing a lot to make sure residents of mobile home parks receive fair treatment. One of them, County Mobile Home Positive Action Committee (COMPAC) publishes a 2-page monthly newsletter (The COMPAC Chronicle). They also hold General Meetings every other month at Lakeside Mobile Home Community Clubhouse, 9395 Harritt Road, Lakeside, California. Membership dues are $10 per year. Please contact Mel Robinson - President, at compac441@aol.com for more details.
Other mobile home organizations include: SMOAC - Santee Mobile Home Action Committee, EMPAC - Escondido Mobile/Manufactured Home Positive Action Committee, SMMR - San Marcos Mobile Home Residents Association, OMHA - Oceanside Mobile Homeowners Alliance, Inc., and GSMOL - Golden State Mobile Home Owners League.
Staying informed and supporting one or more mobile home organizations in California will benefit those who really need your help now. It may also have a profound influence on your own future down the road.
At times I have thought it would be very useful for human beings to be able to blend into our surroundings, as much wildlife does. It is a survival ability, but one that mankind usually employs only in wartime, or in so-called war games. Yet, if good people could melt into the woodwork, so to speak, then so could the criminal element. And the latter would not benefit society in any way. Let cowardly criminals stand out in the daylight, where the world can see them for what they are and avoid them.
While both jungle cats and deer match their environments for different purposes, the master of disguises is probably the chameleon (and some of its cousins). These lizards of many species are found in many places in our world, and are able to match their colors to whatever background they find themselves on. However, some reliable sources tend to point out that the chameleon’s skin color changes are mostly due to light and temperature, and whether or not the chameleon is scared out of its wits at the time. That said, changing to green or brown or grey certainly does match many ground and plant environments. Certain other lizards can also change their skin coloring, sometimes to more subtle shades.
Whatever I saw on my way into the office on a very cold morning was a very lucky chameleon/lizard. I haven’t yet found a matching picture to identify him or her, but he was the same color as the aging asphalt in the parking lot. That is to say, a brownish-grey, not black. I sensed that he wasn’t dead, even though he didn’t move when I touched him with my foot. He just didn’t look dehydrated enough to be dead.
However, Sir Lizard was about to get mashed to a pulp where he was. Hundreds of people work and park in the business campus, and most barely care about wildlife they can see venturing from the old reservoir area and down our way. This includes cottontails, squirrels, coyotes and waterfowl. Something as small as a lizard is beneath their radar, and probably their contempt. I put down my briefcase and picked up the chameleon in a gloved hand. When I placed him in the bushes out of harm’s way, he moved his tail and his left hind leg. I had sufficiently warmed him to get an indication that he was indeed alive, just sluggish and highly vulnerable in a busy parking lot in 40 degree weather.
So, I have made another discovery on my journey through life. Small worlds revolve around us 24 hours a day. I hope we can all glimpse at least some of them and treasure those moments. www.shirleyannparker.com/discoveries.htm
A local morning news show on TV has been holding a second series of auditions for a new weathercaster / meteorologist. Although it’s hard to imagine that anyone who has earned a degree in the science would put him- or herself through such torture, being “the weatherman” is a type of entertainment these days. They did have plenty of applicants; perhaps some did not have college degrees in meteorology.
While the semi-finalist candidates are mostly poised—hard to accomplish under so much stress—the same cannot be said of the judges and quasi-judges. They seem to have taken too many pages from Simon’s book, on another audition show, that is, from him of the caustic comments. Both judges and anchors (who are allowed to toss in their own barbs, along with a few compliments) reflect badly on the normal professionalism at the station.
While the entertainment world is harsh, there is no reason whatsoever why folks suddenly “given a little authority” need to be brutal. That kind of behavior is unprofessional, unkind, and devoid of valid purpose. Those who do not have the necessary talent will likely fail in this world, but who is to determine what talent really is? As just one example, how many “failures” have gone on to outrank their dismal classmates in worldly success or humanitarian endeavors? We may well judge that someone lacks ability in an area we ourselves know well, but we don’t need to be the one who throws that last shovelful of dirt on their dreams.
Those who are successful in this world get there by helping others along the way, not by tearing into them like hyenas at a carcass, before the vultures shift toward it. I truly hope that the good candidates earn gainful employment elsewhere. And may they have the graciousness to be nice to other people on their way up, even though they were not afforded the same kind of treatment themselves. We will all meet the same people on our way down the slippery slope, as we met on our way up the career ladder. We will most certainly run into them in the next life. The future could be quite interesting, for the servants, slaves and victims in this life may well be the rulers in the eternal worlds.
www.shirleyannparker.com/discoveries.htm
The Chatsworth and Thousand Oaks fires–officially called the Topanga Fire–are not yet fully contained, but thankfully, they are not now the threat that they were either. Unfortunately, many weary firefighters have had to be reassigned to the growing Burbank fire that is almost certainly caused by arson. (The cause(s) of the Topanga fire, which appears now to have burned 24,000 acres near heavily-populated areas, is still under investigation.) We are also still hearing helicopters, as they fly back and forth over the Topanga Fire.
I am one of those “hard-hearted” people who feel no compassion whatsoever for arsonists and the “thrill of it all” for them. I frankly don’t care what’s going on in their disarranged minds, or that they had a deprived childhood. Many millions of people had less-than-perfect, even miserable, childhoods but they didn’t, and don’t, go out and set fires to destroy what isn’t theirs in the first place.
We are immensely fortunate that this time no human lives have yet been lost. In addition, highly trained and coordinated firefighters from many communities across California worked together to save more than 2,000 homes in the veering path of the raging Topanga Fire! Sadly, for many people, their losses have no price tag. Some few this time will grieve for decades over priceless heirlooms that can never be replaced. Many more will mourn missing pets, and devastated wildlife populations that burned to death or died of smoke inhalation.
We noticed late yesterday that the hummingbirds and mockingbirds are back–though from where, we don’t know. We haven’t yet seen the house sparrows, the blue jays, the phoebes, or the tiny finches I still haven’t identified. We don’t even hear the raucous, nattering conventions of the crows, as they discuss the state of the universe or chase invaders away. The silence is unnatural. We haven’t yet seen Momma Possum or her babies, but they probably found refuge and survived. There are no carcasses in the backyard, after all.
Yet most of those wild animals still alive in the area will now starve to death because there is no food and only a little water for them. The deer will be too weakened to migrate very far in their search for food. The coyotes, mountain lions, bobcats, and possibly, black bears will now venture even more boldly into residential neighborhoods–particularly in the San Fernando Valley–because they are so hungry. This means cats and small dogs are at even higher risk for being snatched, so owners must keep them inside. It’s necessary to supervise small children at all times.
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Click here for my view on the rebuilding of New Orleans, while the link is still active.