I couldn't go to work today -- the freeways leading down the hill are closed. The two fires I've been watching all week have merged into one at the Cajon Pass, which is the local high altitude point between my home and the communities "down the hill." The fires in Southern California now stretch in a line (not unbroken) from Claremont to Riverside, and up to Arrowhead Lake and Big Bear. The wind is strong up here -- but as long as I see it blowing from the East, I'm less concerned than I might be. The Santa Ana winds that fuel the Southern California wildfires originate East of here, blow through my area, and funnel down through canyons and passes, picking up velocity and strength, before they dissipate over the Pacific Ocean. It's a hot wind. In the fifties, they called in the Red Wind, because when it blew, tempers would rise and blood would spill. Tens of thousands of acres have burned. Hundreds of homes have been lost. I've got about twenty miles or so between my house and the nearest fire line. Airports are shut down in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Ontario because they had to…

I move closer and closer to eliminating Windows -- and the influence of Microsoft -- from my working environment! I no longer code websites in Dreamweaver -- I use Screem or a plain old text editor. I no longer work with graphics in Photoshop -- I use Gimp! I am totally off MS Office and don't miss it a bit when there's OpenOffice and Evolution. And now... Thanks are due to Evan for building LogJam, the LiveJournal client for Linux I'm using to write this entry. It's going to be nice to throw entries up on the web without opening up a browser. A few wrinkles remain, like getting my digital camera to work with Linux, but man, this is great. Let's hear it for a DIY operating system stuffed with DIY software. Hurrah!

For the third night in a row, I've had to drive past hillsides where plumes of fire burn fifty, a hundred feet into a night sky made white with smoke.

This week, so far, I've had two distinct visits from people I haven't seen in years.

Okay, world, I thought I should use this forum to announce my new magazine and encourage anyone who has an appropriate submission to go ahead and, well, submit it!

Well, for the first time in my life, I voted for a Republican. Sure, a socially liberal Republican, but a Republican, all the same! Folks outside of Cal-eee-fornia can't totally understand the way outgoing! Governor Davis goaded us into this: Rolling Blackouts. Budget Battles. Unemployment. Businesses Fleeing. TRIPLING THE CAR TAX. DRIVER'S LICENSES FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS. Personally, I couldn't stand the way Davis, when he was trying to be forceful on a point, would extend his hand like he was holding a pointer... not quite a fist. He couldn't seem to make a fist... maybe someone told him a fist was too violent, too forceful, and it's better to seem gentle and agreeable. Didn't work. I've seen sock puppets with more conviction. As for Schwarzenegger's questionable behavior toward women: Can we all recall John F. Kennedy's womanizing? How about Bill Clinton's below-desk secretary? How about, for that matter, George W. Bush's cocaine use and drunk driving? How about Ronald Reagan's astrology? Let's see how the man does the job.