Monday, October 28, 2019

Updates.

We did have a pretty good wind event yesterday, so I stayed in the burbs. I didn't want to get trapped on a freeway where I couldn't get back to check on my property in a very quick amount of time. The wind wouldn't have been much of a scare, but the trees are just starting to drop leaves.  Which made it a very dangerous time. What wasn't on the ground was still up in the trees. So at least the wind knocked a bunch of that down and at least cut the fuel to some degree.

Spent the day with Mr S. reinstalling a light because I'd painted the ceiling. During a break I just disappeared. When I came back in the house Mr S. said - it' looks like you are freaking out. I'm like - yeah I'm freaking out - I was out cutting our climbing exposure. Because if there is anything I know about fire - it loves to climb.

I'd already made a plan that if fire was imminent I was going to start dropping tree limbs, and the wind was high enough that I thought I should thin a few things out just in case. Usually by this time of year you feel home free as it rains right after Halloween.

I also spent a lot of time running the sprinklers and making sure what I had on the property at least had some moisture content in it. My thought was - it may still burn - but hopefully I sill slow it down. I ran the sprinklers off and on all day.

Rumor has it that we get to do this all over again on Tue/Wed. Lacy gets to go to work with Mr S. as the freeway rule comes back into play. My feeling is that if I lose the house I still want a pet to cry into. It all seems like a lot of drama - but you don't know how little time you have if the worst happens. A house can be fully engulfed in three minutes.

But at least I might have some tech stuff to bitch about week.

5 comments:

  1. Capital of Texas RefugeeMonday, October 28, 2019 4:43:00 PM

    HEY NEIGHBOR WITH THE ANNOYING DOG HOWSIT GOIN' ...

    YEAH, JUST OUT HERE WITH MY FIRE HOSE SOAKIN' THE HOUSE

    DOES YOUR DOG WANT A FREE DRINK?

    WELL SEND HIM OVER I'LL SOAK HIS ASS DOWN SO HE DOESN'T CATCH FIRE

    MAYBE YOU NEED A FREE DRINK TOO NEIGHBOR???

    :-)

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  2. This is actually funnier than you even know. The female owner of that dog works for PG&E. Soooooo. I'm hoping I get a new neighbor. The guy of course is just happy to be married. I keep watching the stock price and thinking - so I've got a chance!

    I've seriously had to debate on whether I would try to save their house too. I have elevation with my deck. Throwing water down on something is easier than pushing it up from the ground. And of course the wind caused a bit of a fence problem. But since this area only opens up to my driveway I don't know how I'm going to handle it. I will probably ask them what they want me to do about it the way they did with me. Normally I go out of my way to be polite to the neighbors. And everyone really. You have to live by them.

    I'm still super bitter they called the cops on me. They are garbage people.

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  3. I'd like to think that they are learning a lesson to always be nice to people. You never know when your fortunes will change. But humanity doesn't work that way.

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  4. Capital of Texas RefugeeMonday, October 28, 2019 10:11:00 PM

    "I'd like to think that they are learning a lesson to always be nice to people."

    Eventually I figured out that there are really three groups of people when it comes to people who are being nice:

    1. They are nice because they can be.
    2. They are nice because they have to be.
    3. They are nice because they use it as a way to get what they want.

    This may also come from these social divisions:

    1. They can be nice because they are of a higher social status and don't care about quid pro quo in every situation.
    2. They have to be nice because they have really crappy social status or have reached the limit of the amount of shit they can pull in the future.
    3. They use being nice as a way to attempt to leverage their social status in an attempt to commoditize it in some way, with the implication that whatever their social status happens to be, it isn't quite all that.

    Being in group 1, I trust people in group 1 more than in the other two groups, but generally if I see people who are acting like they are in group 3, I'll do everything in my power to cut them out of situations where I need to depend on them.

    I can still say hello to them even though I don't trust them all that much.

    I may even talk to these people as if I'm a friend, even though the truth is that I'm being friendly because I can be, not because I have to be, not because I feel I have anything to gain from it ...

    That's what higher social status and power actually implies.

    I have seen people slide from group 1 into group 2 and then into group 3 in a very short amount of time, and so I'm always looking for the signs of that.

    Your shitty neighbors are in group 3.

    They might not have started out there, but that's where they are now.

    I would probably put out their fire anyway because I can, assuming that this is an option, not because I have to, and definitely not because I'm trying to win points with shitty neighbors.

    The only principle I can think of that's governing that is a natural tendency that makes me want to prevent the avoidable loss of property, not necessarily for the owners, but for the sake of the property itself and the people who have to live around it.

    The problem with people in group 3 is that they are so used to thinking that people who are being nice actually want something from them that they have no basis for understanding that people in group 1 are not being nice out of weakness.

    Because they're so bent that they think that being nice is a sign of weakness when it isn't, that's all the more reason to keep group 3 people cut out of everything as much as possible ...

    I wouldn't even invite your neighbors to putting out their own fire because I don't see that they can actually manage that. :-)

    People in group 3 also like relying on Big Organizations and often work for these kinds of things -- it's a way they acquire their own Gang Signs.

    There are entire professions where these kinds of people can obtain limited power, once again involving Big Organizations and Gang Signs.

    Being in group 3 in essence may mean that they're trying to leverage their social and other incompetences in a way where they can still try to win, but since they're not great at actual winning, they stage "little victories" where they can think they've pulled one over someone or some people.

    And so you may trust these people at your peril, because inevitably they'll create collateral damage just to watch how you clean up from it.

    It gives them life drama they can enjoy while they're not winning.

    Again, I'd try to put the fire out ...

    ... but in the back of my mind, I'd be wondering if the scare of the fire, the irritation of dealing with insurance, and the uncertainty of a neighbor who's actually powerful enough not to give a shit about having put out the fire at all would be enough to make these irritating group 3 neighbors want to sell and move.

    Because that would also be winning. :-)

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  5. "Eventually I figured out that there are really three groups of people when it comes to people who are being nice:"

    I feel like the trick to life is not to figure out why people are being nice to you. The trick is to figure out why people are being dicks for no reason. And as you've accurately diagnosed - it's due to status. Some people are just dicks because they have an overinflated view of their status. Which is the category me neighbor fits into.

    I'm somewhat status agnostic. I wasn't suppose to amount to much, so every place I get is pretty much awesome. And being an only child I didn't have to compete for attention which was good because my mom was somewhat incapable of that. Being shy on top of all that lets me blend in with people in the projects or people driving fancy Bugatti's. I think it's hard for people to tell my status because I don't display it. And I don't really care that much in the way other people do. I'm just happy doing me.

    I'm nice to people because it doesn't cost me anything for the most part. But I also have a pretty bad attitude because I go out of my way to be nice and other people don't reciprocate. They are dicks just for the sake of being dicks. And really that is our culture right now. People think the way to life is just to be a gigantic asshole.

    Figuring out why people are nice is easy. Heavy on the flattery? Suckup for sure.

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