It's hard to get my mind off the fires. They're still raging, still very far from me, still likely to continue for some time. I'm saddened for the folks whose homes and even lives have been destroyed. I'm angry at the political types trying to blame this on their opponents. (Politifact and FactCheck.org both have good summaries of lies being told.)
What little I've seen of the news has spent way too much time focusing on the celebrities whose homes burned. Then again, I don't see what's achieved by interviewing anyone, famous or not, at one of the worst moments of their lives. I remember a local disaster when I was young — I think it was when the Baldwin Hills Dam burst and flooded local neighborhoods. It was not as big a catastrophe as the current one but just as painful to the people who were affected.
One of the local TV stations that was covering it all had its News Director (or someone in charge) taking phone calls live. My mother called up, got on the air and asked, "What good does it do to shove a camera into the face of someone who's just lost their home? Aren't these people entitled to a little privacy at an hour like this?" The News Director (or whoever it was) said, "You obviously have no idea what news is," then he punched a button to disconnect her call.
I remember her standing there, holding the phone handset in her hand and saying, mainly to herself, "Well, now I know what it's about on your channel."
I feel bad for all the people affected including those who are or will experience collateral damage. The guy who cleans my pool stopped by this morning to do his duty here and then he asked if I could pay my next few bills in advance because he's lost a third of his clients. Some of those whose homes were destroyed owed him for past services and he can't bring himself to send them bills for what they owe him. It's not a huge amount of money compared to most losses but he needs it to pay his rent, buy groceries, etc.
Meanwhile, we're all checking on our friends, breathing barbecued air and getting very frustrated that there's no instant cure to stop the devastation. I'm going to try to work on assignments and when I do post here, it'll mostly be things unrelated to the fires, just to get my mind off these horrid events. Maybe some of it will help you do likewise.