Welcome to Thunderdome

I spent 3 months out there, a few years ago. Even then I knew it was a beautiful area, one of the most gorgeous cities in the world maybe, but just waaaaay too many other people, for my comfort. By at least 10 times.

Pretty shot.

I've never had a problem with the state itself. I understand why people love it so. It's all the batshit insanity that seems to infect that entire coastline that keeps me away.

Vince wrote: I've never had a problem with the state itself. I understand why people love it so. It's all the batshit insanity that seems to infect that entire coastline that keeps me away.

There are certainly plenty of issues. I've lived in other cities, and traveled to tons of states, they all have issues. Utopia doesn't exist. For me and plenty of others,the downsides pale in comparison to the good parts.

And, as always, keep him mind where the people are located that are writing those inflammatory articles that denounce California's ruin and peril. The same groups outside of California who were posting article after article about how CA was SURE to secede from the Union. Certain parts of the political spectrum NEED to see California fall in flames because otherwise would mean their worldview doesn't add up to the story they spin to the masses.

Never-mind that the economy is a freight train that can't be stopped. GDP higher than the UK with 20 million less people. 90%+ of the nuts and most fruits for the the nation are produced here.

I keep saying - get out if you don't like it, do the rest of us a favor by lowering the traffic by another car, another seat on the train, or one less bid on the house for sale.

I think the approach to the homeless and drug users (often overlapping issues) is a big issue that is exacerbated by how beautiful it is. With that temperate climate, the lax homeless laws are going to have a much greater issue than it would in say... Minnesota. There the "it's legal to live in the park in a tent" wouldn't be an issue around Nov-Feb.

Troy wrote: And, as always, keep him mind where the people are located that are writing those inflammatory articles that denounce California's ruin and peril. The same groups outside of California who were posting article after article about how CA was SURE to secede from the Union. Certain parts of the political spectrum NEED to see California fall in flames because otherwise would mean their worldview doesn't add up to the story they spin to the masses.

Counterpoint: We have electricity.



edit - aww crap, vince beat me to it

Troy, what are businesses doing during these mandated blackouts?

Leisher wrote: Troy, what are businesses doing during these mandated blackouts?

Keeping their stock cold with generators, and/or just closing down I think. Most outages didn't last that long. Made a lot of people re-think their earthquake preparation, me included.

They are mostly blacking out the more rural, higher elevation areas that are largely residential. Areas that are exposed to higher wind and are more likely to have tree branches on power-lines. Our outage lasted about 48 hours. Our neighborhood grocer had to close for the same amount of days. Frustrating for him because it was only 4-5 blocks down the hill that never lost power. The winds died down nearly a week ago, and things have been getting a lot better. I made sure to throw my grocer some extra business to make up for his losses.

SoCal is getting the brunt of the wind and new fires, now.

Touche on the power loss .. sort of. We don't get ice storm or Hurricane related power loss... so let's add those numbers up and compare.

This is the first time they've had to turn the power off for a high wind event, to my knowledge. How many Hurricanes and Ice storm related outages do we get every year on the east coast, Gulf, Midwest?

It was 75 and sunny in the city today.

Knocking on so much wood, but I haven't lost power here in Ohio due to weather for about 10 years.

Electric company has a tree service out all summer, every summer, keeping lines clear.

GORDON wrote: Knocking on so much wood, but I haven't lost power here in Ohio due to weather for about 10 years.

Same at my current house. We did have the outage last weekend thanks to a fire, but not weather related.

Now my business is a different story. We have outages 2-3 times a year there.

We may have a couple hour outage due to storms during bad weather, but it's usually not wide spread outages. But we're so rural we're not going to have the concentration of people without power. The transformer in our yard blew earlier in the year. Took about 5 hours for them to get us back up.

I suspect that California will be like Memphis and this area (which had a huge ice storm outage a few years ago). Now that they've had a lot of hardship from not maintaining the line areas, they'll start to rethink that yearly maintenance.

OK, what kind of filter was that processed through? I 0% believe that's an unfiltered shot.

Troy wrote: We don't get ice storm or Hurricane related power loss... so let's add those numbers up and compare.

To be fair to Troy, we did lose power for 4 hours once in the past 9 years. Oh wait, it was a substation issue.

The idea of a state in America that can't keep the power on for ANY reason(outside of being knocked out by weather/some schmuck hit a power pole) should be way more offensive than it seems to be. That's 3rd world problems. Baghdad had daily planned outages, too.

TheCatt wrote: OK, what kind of filter was that processed through? I 0% believe that's an unfiltered shot.

It’s just an iPhone 8 and no filter. I darkened it a little in photoshop so you could see the city better, but very minor. That’s how the sunrises look here with the smoke in the air. Beautiful/sad.

TheCatt wrote:

Troy wrote: We don't get ice storm or Hurricane related power loss... so let's add those numbers up and compare.

To be fair to Troy, we did lose power for 4 hours once in the past 9 years. Oh wait, it was a substation issue.

I’ve lived through Hurricanes in NC that wrecked power from Wilmington to Raleigh for a week.

And Ice storms in both NC and GA that were just crippling to the areas.

Parents place in Wilmington still gets hit pretty often during storm season. Storm shutters have been used many times since they finally invested in them a while ago.

This wind event in California had hurricane force winds coming off the high deserts. On top of that we are due 4 rain events in October in a normal year. Got none. Have had some of the wettest winters the last few years. Vegetation loved it. Our reservoirs are 130% above normal levels, but that doesn’t mean the ground isn’t bone dry and if you don’t water your plants in the low humidity they’ll brown fast.

It’s all just weather related. But they’ll paint us as liberal wackos who can’t keep the power on. As always, check where the source is. Our State government is likely to seize the utility so the executives stop giving each other huge bonuses/corporate retreats and instead pay the money to bury the lines. There was literally a fancy corporate retreat in progress in wine country when that fire broke out.

What we need is rain, it’s been 6 months without it. None on the horizon yet. Heard SoCal got some this weekend, we could use it up here.

E: checked and LA’s rain was so brief that most people missed it and it can’t do much to stop the fires in that amount. Damn

Troy wrote: I’ve lived through Hurricanes in NC that wrecked power from Wilmington to Raleigh for a week.

Me too. But those were in 1996, 1999, and the ice storm in... 2002? The past 17 years have been quite good in our area. Though lots of places around the Triangle still lose power on heavy thuderstorms, etc. Lines are all buried for several miles around where we live now.

Troy wrote: It’s all just weather related. But they’ll paint us as liberal wackos who can’t keep the power on. As always, check where the source is. Our State government is likely to seize the utility so they stop giving each other huge bonuses/corporate retreats and instead pay the money to bury the lines.

Dude, no one has to paint it as anything. They're shutting off your power.

But yes, bonuses instead of line maintenance does seem like a problem.

GORDON wrote:

Troy wrote: It’s all just weather related. But they’ll paint us as liberal wackos who can’t keep the power on. As always, check where the source is. Our State government is likely to seize the utility so they stop giving each other huge bonuses/corporate retreats and instead pay the money to bury the lines.

Dude, no one has to paint it as anything. They're shutting off your power.

But yes, bonuses instead of line maintenance does seem like a problem.

People all over the right wing media hemisphere, including the president on Twitter, are painting this as a “systematic problem in a liberal failed state.”

It’s just a weather event. I’ve experienced them all over the place.

I’ll find some links when I get out of bed and get into the war room.

E: no I won’t - just type that shit into foxnews/breitbart/redstate search bars