Surfire

A friend just sent me this picture.  She was out surfing during the fires and snapped this shot.  This is at San Onofre State Beach, and San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is in the background.  You can see the Camp Pendleton fire crawling down the hill towards the ocean.  This is the same fire from the picture in my previous entry below.  The surf was great during the fires, but the call of duty of my job prevented me from getting in the water.  Bummer...

Posted by SugartasticJ @ 2:23 pm EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Fire, fire, fire!

So, the fires are out.  Actually, our nearest fire, the Santiago Fire, is said to still be smoldering, threatening to resurrect itself if the dry winds return (which they're supposed to next week).  But for the most part, the smoke and ash are gone and life is normal again.

I found this pic on a local news site.  I like it because it was taken only a couple blocks from my house, and shows one of the fires that surrounded us.  In the foreground is Dana Point Harbor, where I keep a boat.  My house is just to the left of this image.  On the horizon is San Clemente (home to our own LotusEater), and beyond that is the fire at Camp Pendleton.  Actually, this wasn't our closest fire.  The Santiago Fire, a few miles to the left of this picture, was closer.

Posted by SugartasticJ @ 9:47 pm EDT | Permalink | 4 Comments

Eerie

Tonight a dark orange full moon rose from a horizon glowing orange from the wildfires that surround us.  My family and house are safe, but the sky over us is a cloudy brown storm of ash and smoke.  Ash and embers are falling on my home like a dirty snow.  I visited New Orleans not long after Katrina and realized that TV will never accurately capture the devastation of a real disaster.  The firestorms here are no exception.  This is awful, tragic.  Friends and co-workers have lost their homes.  If there's any fortune to be found in this disaster, it's that few lives have been lost.  But the devastation is still severe.

If you're one of the two or three people that read my blog, you know part of my job is disaster management.  Specifically, medical disaster management.  Fortunately, this has not been a medical disaster.  But I've still been busy managing my hospitals' response to the fires.  Long days, little sleep, endless phone calls and meetings.  Tonight, finally a short break to spend with my family, still keeping a close eye on the two closest fires threatening my community.

The weather is turning and the end is in sight, but the emergency is nowhere near over.  Countless evacuees are waiting to return to their homes, many to find a pile of smoldering rubble.  Where do they go then?  It will take years for my community to fully recover from this disaster.  Wish us luck...

 

 

Posted by SugartasticJ @ 10:52 pm EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments

Sacramental

I just noticed that my last blog entry was a pretentious whine from a fluorescent-lit motel pseudo-lounge in Sacramento.  From where I'm sitting now, that last blog is an embarassing display of arrogant snobbery that (read remainder of sentence with valley-girl pitch)... you know, is so... whatever...  not like me!

So where am I sitting now?  In that very "grand but pretentious lounge" that I compared the farmers' lounge to, ogling the same waitresses and listening to the same live piano music that I do every time I visit the Amourath 1819.  It's one of those bars where the brightest lights glow a dim amber from the table candles, and the couples at nearby tables whisper to each other and giggle quietly in dark corners.  I love these places, and I feel guilty for inserting my notebook's LCD halo into an old-school hush-hush lounge.

But something about being out of town, alone, in a bar, drinking martinis and eating smoked almonds, with a notebook computer on the table, invokes a blog entry.  So here I am.  What do I have to say?  Nothing really, but I feel I need to close this entry with some substance...  OK, two things...

First.  My job is not a travel job.  I am not some sales whatever that lives on planes.  I don't have out-of-town regional offices that need to be visited.  In my 17+ years in this business, it's only been the last couple years that I've been booking "business flights."  But it seems I've been doing it a lot.  I like part of it... this part: sitting in a bar alone drinking and eating and blogging.  I also like the brief getaways of independence.  I love my wife and kids beyond description, but something about stepping out of that pool for a few days of drying off is pleasing.  I can't really describe it, but it's fun... for the first day or two, then I need to get home quick to the embrace of my family.  My six-year-old cried when I left this afternoon, and that breaks my heart.

Second.  This trip couldn't come at a worse time.  OK, it could, like on one of my kids' birthdays...  wait, it did - I left my son's birthday party today to catch my flight.  Or it could keep me from one of my best friend's weddings... wait, that to - my best man at my wedding is getting married Wednesday, when I'm still here in Sacramental.  Or worse, when Halo 3 is released.  My clan's forum is busy with promises of midnight H3 purchases and days off to dedicate to the Halo.  But here I will be, a two-hour flight from home without my 360.  I'll watch Bungie's website and my clan's forum for live breaking news updates, while I prepare my presentation to a bunch of bureaucrats who won't remember it at the cookie break.  Whatever will I do?

Shit, I could probably get someone else to deliver my speech, catch an early flight home, hug and kiss the kids, love the wife for a few minutes, electrify the 360, and get it on with my clan.  Hmm, these martinis and almonds and cobb salad, and Brooke (my waitress) are getting to me.  Jeopardize my career for Halo?  Let me think about that.

What's Southwest's rescheduling policy?

 

Posted by SugartasticJ @ 12:31 am EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

Arnold is a Cheap Host

I hadn't planned on posting a blog tonight, but something about sitting in a hotel bar, alone, out of town, a martini in hand, and, well...

Back in September I visited our state's capitol - Sacramento - to lobby ("advocate", we say - it sounds better) for a $400 million state budget provision. I traveled on my company's budget - a nice hotel, a generous per diem, fine dining, etc. I posted a blog then from a grand but pretentious lounge, served drinks by elegantly dressed and sexy waitresses, and partook (is that a word?) in fine dining.

And our lobbying - er, advocating - was mostly successful... $240 million was budgeted for our cause. Great. Now the governor has asked me to return to help decide how to spend the money. OK, he didn't ask for me personally, but I was named to his team of 10 people to formulate the plan. It's quite an honor, or so I've been told. This time, however, the Great State of California is paying my tab. All the better. Let's get to work...

So last week the State's travel office sends me their guidelines for travelling on their dime (and I mean "dime" literally). As I read the allowances and instructions, I realize this won't be the pseudo-extravagance of my last visit. For instance, I am allowed up to, but not exceeding, $6 for breakfast, $10 for lunch, and a whopping $16 for dinner. And I will be reimbursed up to $84/night for lodging. Isn't this the Gold Rush state? Shit, the martinis on my last visit cost more than my dinner allowance.

So here I am again, not at the Hyatt Regency lounge, listening to live piano music and drooling over the cocktail waitresses, but sitting in a bland and suffocating lounge at the "Marriot on Y Street", listening to a pair of drunk farmers complaining about the declining quality of manure. My martini tastes like vermouth with a splash of vodka, and my waitress probably cleans rooms on the day shift - in fact, she's still wearing the uniform.

And I have two thoughts battling in my head... Is the state just cheap, or have I become the epitome of pretention that was so at home in that elegant lounge back in September? I dunno, but I'm thinking of hailing a cab and going back to the Hyatt.

 

Posted by SugartasticJ @ 12:25 am EDT | Permalink | 5 Comments