Tuesday, 28 October 2003
2:30pm
L
ots of things to update on since, well, it has been a month since my last update, so there will be a lot of things to cover in this update. So I guess I'll just break things up into different sections so it's not all one giant block of text dedicated to a bunch of different subjects. Or something. So here we go, starting with:

The Fires - I haven't seen a blue sky in three days. During the day time the sky, filled with smoke, takes on an erie red glow. It's like being trapped inside some cheesy 70's Sci-Fi show where they used some effect to make it a different planet or something. Ash is just constantly raining down, and though the fires are raging maybe just 5 miles away from here, the fact that they've converted the local high school into an evacuation center for the people who are really in danger, makes me fairly confident that we won't be getting any fire down here.
Leanne brought herself and her animals over and spent the day at our place for fear of fire striking her condo. Fortunately, her place was safe. Sunday night, virtually all of the major freeways in San Diego were closed, except for the 5 which runs up and down the coast. Jeff and I did take the opportunity to run around in the middle of the freeway (which was completely deserted). It turned out to not be that bright of an idea as our lungs were just filled with smoke and ash.
Monday the smoke was still so thick and there was so much ash falling that the night before that the Mayor asked employers to give their workers the day off, all the schools were closed, and just generally being outside was not recommended for health reasons. So much ash is floating in the air that it looks like snow falling... and if you run your car's air conditioner without having on recirculate mode, ash blows in through the vents.
And it rages on. If anything, the layer of smoke over us is even thicker now than it was yesterday, although it appears that the weather is cooperating now and the fires will be out in the next few days. I will be glad when I can finally see some blue skys, and can open up all the windows and just air this place out. We can't open the windows now or else the entire place will be filled with smoke. A minor inconvenience compared to what the people who lost their homes are going through, but it would be nice to be able to retreat to some place where I can just take a deep breath of some clean, fresh air.
The two photos below were shot at around 1:30PM today. They are to show just how dark, and how red it is out there. So dark that I actually have to have all the lights on in here because it's as dark as late evening out there even in the early afternoon!

The Proposal - Two weekends ago (or was it three?) I received a phone call from Cami, who was off in Chicago with Jeff, on their first trip alone in a long, long time. She started the conversation by simply saying "You're going to have to find a new roommate," which was her way of telling me that Jeff had proposed to her. Apparently it happened at the top of the Sears Tower. Congratulations to them. Fortunately, it'll still be some time until I really need a new roommate.
I haven't yet decided what I want to do with my living situation, as there are a number of options I have been considering. The easiest one that would require the least effort is to just stay in this place and find someone to take Cami's room when she's gone. But I've been thinking that this might be a good opportunity for some change in my life. Maybe I will move to a different part of San Diego. Maybe even live by myself. Or, maybe I'll move somewhere else... maybe move out of state to some place like Las Vegas, or even across the border to Tijuana... and I've even been toying with the idea of moving to some place clear out of the continent, like Italy. So I've got no real idea what I want to do along those lines, but at least I've got a bit of time to consider it.

Burnt Clutch Smell - My sister ordered a brand new car. But she ordered a car that only comes with manual transmission. She needed to learn how to drive stick before the car arrived, and well, I'm the only person who drives a car with a manual transmission in my family. So I went up to L.A. and taught her how to drive in my car. Then I swapped cars with her and I'm letting her keep my car to practice on until her new car arrives.
Teaching someone how to drive stick can be a harrowing experience, especially when it's being done in your own car. But she seemed to be proficient enough when I left her, and I'm sure my sister will be just fine with the practice she's getting now. I just hope she keeps a little bigger following distance than she usually does so I don't get my car back with a big dent in the hood like the one she has in her car...

The Grocery Store Strike - As you may or may not be aware of, the grocery store worker's union is now on strike in San Diego, and has been for about 3 or 4 weeks now. The situation is pretty bad, as union truckers will not cross picket lines and deliver food to the stores, and neither side is willing to budge. I am particularly disappointed with just how ridiculously biased toward the union the television media has been so far. As far as you can tell by watching TV, unions and their workers could do no wrong.
Personally, I have very little sympathy for the union or the strikers in this case. The stores want to reduce medical benefits to something that is still way cheaper and better than what 90% the rest of the community gets. It's really hard for me to feel sympathy for someone who is causing my local store to be completely out of bread, and running out of produce, who is causing this inconvenience because they don't want to pay $5 a week for health insurance which will now also institute deductables. Especially since I am paying six times that amount for my coverage which, surprise, surprise, also has deductables.
Some strikers will tell you that "it's not about that", but very few seem to be able to tell you what it actually is about, but I was rather appalled to read one of their flyers that describe "their side of the story." I've already talked about how much they are complaining about their medical coverage being reduced to something that is still better than what most people get, if they get anything at all. But another one of their issues is that the stores want to reduce the coverage of their pension plans. Now I'm not saying that I would like it if someone took away something that I was already getting, but seriously, how many other jobs are available for people out there who have the skill/education requirements it takes to work in a grocery store that have full pension plans and medical plans with no premiums and no deductables? In the real world, in the world outside the unions which have long outlived their purpose, no such jobs exist.
I did get a hearty laugh from the flyer when it tried to describe the hardships of being a grocery store worker. Did you know that part time grocery store workers have to keep their schedules clear so that they can come in when the store when they are needed? Yes, the flyer actually printed that as one of the ways that being a grocery store worker ain't so great. Well BIG DUH!! -- You mean to say that when you get a job, you have to come in when the emlplyer tells you, and not just when it's convenient for you? OH THE HORROR! How can anyone live under those kinds of conditions!? Hahahaha. Yeah right.
I say if there are plenty of people ready and willing to work those jobs gladly for less pay and less benefits, the stores should be able to hire them. This is supply and demand. This is how business work. The unions seem to believe that the stores exist for the sole betterment of its employees. News flash, the store is a business, and it's in the business of making money. Unions are great things to have when the workers are being abused and/or severely undercompensated. Grocery store workers, especially with their current benefits packages fall under neither of those categories.
It will be interesting to see how the strikers react after the 1st of the month comes around and they can't make rent because they've only been earning strike pay for the last 3 weeks. I think the union severely overestimated their clout on this one. They probably figured that just threatening to strike was going to make the stores roll over. But the stores aren't going to budge, and at this point, I have to believe that the stores can last a whole lot longer than the workers can.
The bottom line for me is, I am not going to drive 10 miles out of my way to go to a non-striking store because someone is whining about how their benefits package is going to get worse, when it's still gonna be a whole hell of a lot better than mine. If the strikers want me to go to a different store, I'll go to a different one just as soon as they start paying for my health insurance and give me a pension plan. Until then, I'll have no problem crossing these picket lines.

Other Stuff - There are some new DVD reviews on my DVD Review Page.

All I really want right now is to see some blue skies, have some clean air to breathe, and to be able to buy bread at the local market. :(