Sunday, November 16, 2008

Ring of Fire

Every once in awhile, I'll wake up in the morning, unsuccessfully try to brush my crackling hair and notice it's a bit hotter and smoggier than usual, even for Los Angeles. It takes me a few hours to realize that the Santa Ana winds are blowing in, bringing hot, dry air and the perfect conditions for wildfires.

That was yesterday. Today it's impossible not to notice the evidence of wildfires. The sunlight streaming through open windows has an orange tint to it, and every breath of air tastes like smoke and ash.



The newspapers say Los Angeles is surrounded by a "ring of fire," but that's a bit of an exaggeration (as poetic as it is). There's a fire out near Santa Barbara, two hours to the northwest of LA. In the Los Angeles metropolitan area itself there's a fire to the northwest in San Fernando Valley and a fire to the southeast in Chino Hills.

As always, people and homes in urban areas are fine (myself included), but those in less dense neighborhoods running up into the mountains are being hit hard.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

New Blog Home

I am in the process of transferring from my z0r_palmer Livejournal to this, the Wandering Geologist blog. I hope this makes it easier for people without Livejournals to navigate and comment on my blog. Besides, Blogger seems more professional (blog-ish, one might say), while Livejournal seems more personal (journal-ish), and what I write here is intended for a broader audience.

I have moved over all my old Palmer Cruise posts and written a few new posts, mostly about the end of the cruise in Punta Arenas, Chile. The new posts are:
3/23/2008: The Bridge (photo of the Palmer's bridge)
3/29/2008: This is where science happens (photo of the watchstander station)
4/2/2008: Roll-o-meter 2000 v.2.0 (photo of my Roll-o-meter)
4/14/2008: Oops (the Chilean flag)
4/15/2008: Pisco Calafate (what sailors do with their first night on land)
4/15/2008: Punta Arenas (the town Plaza)
4/15/2008: Sagrado Corazón Cathedral (going to a Chilean church)
4/16/2008: Goodbye, Punta Arenas (self-explanatory)
4/20/2008: Amusing Signs (photos of, umm, yeah)

I will go through my Croatia/Venice posts soon and add new stuff.