California fires

 The California fires not only cause people to lose their homes, lifetime possessions, cars, medicines, and more.  The California hates have zero sympathy for firefighters. Or air quality in surrounding communities. Where do children go to school, now that their school burned to the ground? 

Were wildlife able to escape the fires? Trey are not wealthy, nor are trees, flowers, fruit trees and other natural earth things. I imagine the California haters, watching TV news coverage of the fires, applauding and laughing at other people's pain. I wonder how many of them identify as Christians? Probably own a lot of red baseball caps, and defaced U.S. flags with the Felon-elects face over the stripes. 

Makes me so sad that such hatred exists. They are likely the same people who will complain when prices rise due to those fires. Smoke from those fires taints olives in olive tree groves. The same might also be true of other fruit crops, such as oranges. Tariffs on olives from Spain, will also increase the price of olives.

Maybe they do not like olives. That is just an example of how fires far from where they live can affect their lives. 

I wonder how old or young these people are? As mentioned, I am no longer going to Yahoo News Articles. I used to spend a lot of time refuting lies, and reporting the hateful comments. They complain when one of their comments gets rejected ~ violation of free speech. People remind them ~  "you agreed to terms of service," and Community Standards. I can not mention Neo-Nazi flags on J6th attack on Congress. 

Not See Flags will not get rejected. 

Okay, California haters rant is over. 

Hating on California

 I stopped checking Yahoo News Headlines, reading and commenting on articles. Today a Google news search for the CA wildfires directed me to a Yahoo Voices articles. Ticks me off  ~ I was one of Yahoo's voices, after they bought Associated Content, then ditched us without warning; removed all our articles. 

I read some comments. I reported a few ~ misinformation direct from FOX news and the Felon-elect. Really nasty hate speech (Democrats, Liberals, California) and Identity Attack. "You are..." nasty stuff, along with the lies, and hating on California. 

I resisted the urge to reply to a comment ~ numbered list ~ "one true god." She assumed not one person is praying for rain. I am sure thousands of people are praying to their gods of choice. Maybe even some Native tribes doing rain dances? Or maybe the fires are not affecting tribal lands, they would not care ~ land stolen from their ancestors and all of that. 

I do not understand all this hating on California. "Ocean front property," "should sink into the ocean." One lady said they should "recede from the Nation, we would be better off without them." I think she meant "secede." One reply: "they would be better off." I agreed. someone pointed out facts about CA economy being among 5th highest, and paying more taxes to support Red States.

A hater told the poster to "get off that," other states, and so on. I guess she is comparing CA to Texas, New York and Florida. The 2nd, 3rd, 4th state paying the most into Federal taxes. The nasty comments generated thumbs up; the factual and positive comments got thumbs down.

I bet these people watch movies and TV shows filmed in California. They probably supported Ronald Reagan, movie star for president. Hollywood is one of the reasons they hate California. I guess they also hate Disney and never watched Disney kid movies? They see California as one big blue, liberal state. It is not.

Orange county is more red than blue. There is wine country, mountains, desert land, one beautiful ocean beach after another, farm land, along with the major cities. :Lots of parks, green areas. The nasties claim "big tech is leaving CA." I guess that is true. Like Felon-elect, I suppose Elon Musk does not want to pay taxes on his income. 

More later. 

Air quality

 When it is cold here in Allentown, I check Long Beach, California temperatures. When I was living in Long Beach I would check temperatures where my son/daugthers/siblings lived in PA and NJ. Some days they were identical within a few degrees. 

Today I checked Air Quality, Long Beach, CA. Google answers said "moderate," including Signal Hill, moderate. I then checked "smoke and ashes from wildfires." City of Long Beach is issuing warnings about low air quality due to wildfire smoke. Did not say if the fires are raining ashes on Long Beach.

There were 3 wildfires, in a triangle when I lived there. One along the 91 Freeway, another in Anaheim. No longer recall the 3rd. Those fires did rain ashes in our town, that time. Forced to stay indoors, due to heavy smoke. That was the only time the wildfires affected me.

Feel for unsheltered homeless in Long Beach. My street days, it rained.  A lot. Myself and others hung out in restrooms to keep dry. Others hung out at the library. The lucky ones were able to stay  in Winter Shelters all day, due to inclement weather. Maybe today they wear face masks?

Many miles from Canadian wildfires, but could smell the smoke here. Step out on balcony and eyes immediately stung; sky covered with smoke. Different than, say, low hanging clouds or fog. Sunny day, hidden by the smoke cover. I think about my nephew in El Segundo. He is closer to those wildfires, including the recent Malibu one. 

I do miss California. 

car burnt on bike path

 Article about car burning on bike path. I like the image. Skated there many, many times. Went up and down those particular steps much less often. Had this thing that I was going to fall down backwards; had a death grip on the railings. My "slight psychosis?" It seems to have started at a trip to Universal Studios when east coast family came to visit. 

There are links in article that show vehicle burning, than burned out vehicle. I guess I am missing Long Beach today.

https://lbpost.com/news/burning-car-beach-bike-path-long-beach/

Long Beach Memorial

 Long Beach Memorial to honor homeless who died on the streets.

https://lbpost.com/news/they-deserve-to-be-remembered-residents-gather-to-honor-homeless-who-died-this-year/

I often wonder how many of my homeless peers are still alive and/or still living on the streets. 

Winter Shelter 2025

 Long Beach Emergency Winter Shelter will open on January 01, 2025, Article says it will transition to Winter Shelter expanding nightly occupancy from 85 to 130. Confused; is it "emergency winter shelter" or just emergency shelter? A look at map shows the address to be the Long Beach Rescue Mission. 

I remember The Mission being on Pacific Avenue. Maybe this is a new additional location? In addition, if temps drop below 45 degrees, the Multi Service Center will have overnight shelter. 

I used to try to count the number of people at shelters. Seems to me, most of them had more than 130 people sleeping wall to wall. When the bus picked us up to go to San Pedro shelter, many left behind standing in the rain. Driver lied and said another bus was coming to pick them up. 

https://patch.com/california/longbeach-ca/winter-shelter-open-unhoused-people-long-beach

Rec Park

 Spent a lot of time at Rec Park, shown in this video;  loved the eucalyptus trees. 

https://youtu.be/-tWeshI4KOg?si=gDtcYELeJcI7RiyS