Timber

 Watching the wildfires in California and struck by the loss of property and lives.

Driving to town yesterday I followed a log truck.  Not unusual, we have lots of log trucks in Louisiana, but what struck me about this load was that there were only four logs on the truck. And, it was a full load. As I looked closer, the logs looked like hardwood, easily six feet at the base.  Someone is going to get some beautiful slabs out of those logs.

And I wondered.  California is going to need a lot of logs to rebuild, and the wildfires are in forests.  Why not cut the logs that are standing and use those to mill into lumber.  Institute good forestry practices and treat the forest as the renewable resource that it is?

As a young man, I had to know the native pine species in Louisiana Basically, long leaf, short leaf and loblolly's.  As the pines were cut down and reforested, the Southern White Pine replaced most of the native species, but I still see the native species.

There is no reason California can't manage its forests, except that it seems they can't manage water or power either.  We'll see what the next elections reveal about Los Angeles.  Has the disaster changed enough minds that forest management is no longer a foreign concept.

If you want to build houses, you gotta have lumber, and it's standing right there in the forest.

Don't Let The Door HIt You

 Lyin' Joe is giving his farewell speech tonight, and I can't wait until this national nightmare is over.

Everything that Joe has done has been despicable, misguided, or felonious.  The simple fact is that our elected president is a demented old fool who can't tell the difference between fact and fantasy.  If he were a simple old curmudgeon, it might be understandable, but he lies about everything.  

A week or so ago, President Trump took a page from Ronald Reegan's playbook and told Hamas to release the hostages before he takes office.  Or else. Today, Hamas wisely announced the release of the hostages.

As sure as God made little green apples, Joe is going to try and take credit for that tonight. The fact is that Hamas knew that Joe is an empty vessel, and they didn't want to find out what manner of hell Trump was about to rain on them. Joe had nothing to do with this.

The next few days will be about waiting for the calendar to run out, and Joe to leave the national stage.  He's over, done, kaput. And not a moment too soon.

Hey, Joe!  Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

Surgery

 After not going to the eye doc for about five years, I decided in December that I needed new glasses and made an appointment. He told me that I had cataracts and scheduled surgery.  We did the right eye two weeks ago and the left eye yesterday..  I have a follow-up today.

For the surgery I was mildly sedated, drifting in and out.  I talked to the doc during the surgery, but I was woozy.  In recovery, they told me not to drive for 24 hours, and Belle heard them say that.  She was a registered nurse for well over 40 years and won't let me drive until tomorrow.  So, she'll take me to the doc today.

I'm getting really good at putting eye drops in my eye, and skill I never wanted to acquire.  It's all part of getting older, which heats the alternative. In another week, I'll get a new glasses script and can go buy a new set.  I am amazed at how much better I'm seeing things now, but I'll still need lenses. Something about astigmatism that I have had since childhood.

From talking with friends and family, this is pretty common at my age.  Lots of folks have these problems, and the eye docs are pretty good at this kind of thing.  The reason I'm telling you about this is to boost the signal.  If any of you old farts have been putting it off, talk to your friends and go get an eye appointment.  It's not that big of a deal.  Just another pain in the ass and we know how to deal with those.

Oh, Why Not?

I've been busy today with doctors appointments, so why not listen to a little C.W. McCall?

Water Management

 Talking with my sons today about the California fires.  One son runs the water for a city of 50K, the other runs a small rural water district.

Both of them told me that in the event of a catastrophe, they had about three hours of water in the tanks available for use.  A large fire, for example, with multiple trucks pumping from hydrants, about three hours before supplies became critical.  If the electric power was lost that runs the well pumps or the booster pumps, that would cut into the supply because they couldn't refill the storage tanks that feed the pressure to the hydrants.

Elder son says that what scares him the most is a "freeze event", where a big freeze hits the area and many small 1/2" lines burst.  He said that if he had a couple of hundred small lines burst, the effect would be like losing a large line.  He told me that the water folks in Los Angeles have a particular problem because all those structures that have burned, all had water going into them.  As the turn the systems back on, someone is going to have to go around and close the valves at the individual meters.

It was interesting listening to the boys talk across the table today at lunch.  Today was meatloaf, potato salad and yeast rolls.  I learned a lot about water management and what the worker bees in California are going through right now.

But, just so you know, your water system, the one you use to wash dishes and take a shower, is always three hours from catastrophe

DEI Picks

 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.  The spawn of Affirmative Action from the '70s is the latest effort of the Democrat party to promote lesser people into positions of influence.  It had nothing to do with merit or ability, simply a checklist of grievance or mediocrity.  The clearest example I can think of is when Joe Biden promised to pick a black woman as his VP.  Not a capable person with a resume of excellence, just a black woman.  We got Kamala Harris, a failure at everything except self-promotion.

This may be unfair to hundreds or thousands of good people who were hired or promoted in the past four years, but when the stated objective of any organization is to promote DEI, then we can fairly assume that anyone hired or promoted filled the boxes of DEI.

It's not just government or private companies, it is the voters too.  The example of the people of Los Angeles voted for Karen Bass, probably the most inept mayor in office today. The very fact that the people of Los Angeles have not risen up and forcibly overthrown her is simply an example of good people being kind to the retarded.

The people that Bass hired are also shaded by the pall of DEI.  Fairly or not, her stated hiring practices were aligned with DEI.  We cannot assume that they were competent, only that competent people were passed over for the golden idol of diversity.

Don't blame us if we call it out when we see it.  For better or worse, DEI was a stated policy and we can only assume that the hiring practices were in line with it.

Thinking Out Loud

 Thinking about the fires in L.A., and I'm guessing that there are a whole lot more homeless people today than there was last Saturday.  With all those houses burned, lots of folks are sleeping in unfamiliar situations.

Many of these folks will recover.  They are not the kind of people who will remains homeless for long.  No sleeping in tents on the sidewalk or under a bridge. They have networks, family, friends, assets that they can use to start to recover.

Los Angeles still has the homeless that they had last week, but those folks are not so much homeless as helpless. No place to live, no place to go, they are simply a drain on the taxpayer.  When we subsidize something, we get more of it, and I'm not sure that Los Angeles can afford to subsidize them anymore.  Let then either move or starve, it's an easy choice.  

The fires are still raging, and L.A. simply will not have the revenue to solve everyone's problem.  Better that the available money be spent on taxpayers instead of those who bring nothing to the community.

Trump Sentenced

The kangaroos were bouncing all over the courthouse today as the derelict judge sentenced president-elect Donald Trump for a series of misdemeanors that were somehow elevated to felony status.  The judge sentenced Trump to "unconditional discharge" which seems to mean that there are no penalties, but the conviction stands.

The president is sure to appeal this travesty.  Surely, during the appeal process this thing will be tossed, both the trial, the verdict, and the sentence. In a world with accountability, both DA Bragg and the judge would be forced to forfeit their legal licenses and be charged with malfeasance.

I'm not an attorney, but I sat through a lot of court proceedings during my career, and some of the crap I saw in this case would not stand in any decent court with a principled judge.

But, the sentencing phase is done and the case can move forward to the appellate levels where certainly, more reasonable analysis will prevail.

Winter Storm

 We have a winter storm coming.  It looks like our friends in north Texas are catching it right now.

The weather-weenies are telling us that we will stay just south of the freeze line.  We will be okay.  SOme rain, but no ice predicted. The red beans are in the crock pot, and Belle will make corn bread closer to the noon meal.

California Burning

 Like many of you, I have been watching the fires in California move across the landscape.  Many of those people are left with nothing.  It's heart-rending, and our sympathy goes out to them. Some have no fire insurance because the insurance companies have been canalling coverage in fire-prone locations.

The fire departments are catching hell because budget cuts and political decisions have left them unable to respond to widespread catastrophe. Political decisions from years ago have culminated in dry fire hydrants.

The Santa-Anna winds are entirely predictable. The result of poor forest management policies and low humidity are entirely predictable. Political decisions that result in dry fire hydrants are entirely predictable.  It's no wonder that the insurance companies are loath to write fire insurance policies in some areas.

Louisiana has the same type of problem, but rather than fire, our problem is hurricane.  Many companies refuse to write policies south of I-10.  The risk is too high.  Or, they write a policy that covers everyting except hurricane.

The one saving grace for some of those Angelos is that if they have evacuated and have nothing left but the clothes on their backs and the vehicle they evacuated in, they have nothing to go back to. They can go anywhere.  Tuscon or Tennessee, Austin or Asheville. They are free to go and start over.

Starting over is the story of America.  It's part of our shared experience. I've done it twice, coming out of a bad experience with little more than the clothes on my back. It's do-able..  And, it makes us stronger.