Everyone has posted their “Happy Equinox” messages. Oh well. I live in a house that was placed by the Old Ones to line up with the equinoctial sunsets, instead. You can see how tonight the sun seemed to fit into a particular notch in the ridge to the west. They were truly wise, the Old Ones.
And what did I do? I rolled out of bed, walked and fed the dogs, and went off to a wildland fire-training class in the next county. Actually, it was no so much a class as a demonstration/sales pitch for this product—which is a cool product if your agency has big bucks to spend.
It’s a great way to show people who live in the urban-wildland interface, which is where my little volunteer fire department is situated, exactly how a forest fire could roll up their bosky subdivision.
We’re not buying it, of course. No big bucks for the high-tech stuff.
But I also had the chance to chat with some agency people whom I needed to see, and then the other guy from my department and I stood back against the wall and muttered sotto voce about how the US Forest Service really could have used the SimTable last year, when they made a very bad fire prediction that, literally, blew up in their faces hereabouts.
Hey, no one pays us, so we can be free with our opinions.
Here is a news report about modeling last summer’s Wallow Fire in Arizona and New Mexico.
I normally post fire stuff on the other blog, but I thought that I would share a bit here. I may be at my desk editing this big book on Central and Eastern European Paganism for our book series, but now when the telephone rings, I think, Uh-oh, is this a fire call?
Funny, your western notch looks a bit like my eastern notch, only maybe a little smoother with more greenery. Or, perhaps I am stretching a wee bit.
I did not know about your other blog. As your Great Basin neighbor (at least until Alaska calls again) I found many of your posts gave me reason to grumble, squirm & mutter to myself. Drought, fire, water issues… made me think I should just stick to this one. But, then I read about the mountain lion… ooh & the mountain man & I had to smile. We used to run into those guys camping outside Salt Lake (the men, that is) & they are really something else. (In so many ways.)
Re: Western news, if you are not aware, there is a big push for an expansion of the Alton coal mine over here outside Bryce Canyon. Not that is is surprising b/c everyone in Utah seems coal-obsessed, but what struck me was that in the EIS, it was actually suggested (yes, in writing!) that the coal mine expansion would provide a tourism draw. Of course. Because people would definitely want to travel way out here to view coal mine operations… at least as much as they would like to visit the park. Makes sense to me. Not.