October 24, 1991
Dear Everyone:
Things got a little bit hairy out here over the
weekend, what with the world's biggest wiener roast going on over the
East Bay hills. There were a lot
of people in the news media referring to it as the “Oakland
Firestorm”; but the fire marshal decreed that it was not a
“firestorm”. By definition, this
was a “conflagration”. (Do you
suppose that there is a manual somewhere where you go to look up things
like this?)
A firestorm is one where all the surrounding air is
sucked up into the fire, feeding it and allowing it to grow larger and
suck in even more air. This was
described as more like a swarm of ”fire tornadoes” which could pick
themselves up, move through the air seemingly at will, touch down,
then pick up again. This accounts
for the fact that sometimes a whole block would be wiped out except for
one house which would be left standing, virtually unscathed.
Of course, it comes as little
surprise that these houses just happen to have tiled roofs, instead of
the more popular cedar shakes.
Luckily, for us, the wind chose to come out of the
east on Sunday, which is very unusual. Normally,
it comes from the west, in which case the fire could have ignored
Oakland and gobbled up Orinda, Lafayette, Walnut Creek and, ultimately,
Concord. It was a case of, “There
but for the grace of God, go I… And how much insurance coverage do I
have, anyway?”
Let's face it, folks, October just
isn't a very good month.
Two years ago, it was the Loma
Prieta Quake. How many stock
market crashes, of various magnitudes on the Wall Street scale, have
occurred in October? Somebody's favorite team always loses in the World Series.
And can you honestly say that
you've completely forgotten
the Columbus Day Storm of 1962?
No wonder the ancients celebrated the end of
October with a feast day of Thanksgiving.
They were grateful to have gotten through it alive and with
enough food to last the winter. Then,
when the Christians rolled up, they discovered what any union leader
could tell you in a wink: People
will not give up a holiday. So
they just renamed it, “All Hallows Day”.
On a more cheerful note, “Jeannie” and I spent last
weekend engaged in our most favorite pastime:
Spending money.
First, we spent Saturday in half Moon Bay, with
“Marshall” and “Glinda”, at the annual
Pumpkin Festival where we bought: A
lamp for “Jeannie's” cat’s room; an adorable “soft sculpture” (read:
stuffed toy) of a Jack-o’-lantern; wineglasses (as if my sideboard
wasn't filled to bursting with wineglasses); handfuls of magnetic fruits
and vegetables for the refrigerator; and the 1991 HMB Poster.
This, of course, wasn't enough, so on Sunday, we
went to the shopping mall to get the poster framed.
A single cloud of smoke rising
over the hill was the only clue to what was starting on the other side.
“Jeannie”, the news junkie,
called me after we got home from shopping to let me know that Oakland
was going up in flames.
I had scheduled Monday as a Vacation Day, to
recover from all the business trips I had been making.
This turned out to be fortuitous,
as my regular Van Pool took over for two hours to get into the City
because Highway 24 and the
Caldecot Tunnel
were closed by the fire. By
Tuesday, they were reopened, although many exits were closed because
they lead into the fire area. It
took us over an hour just to get to the tunnel Tuesday night, because
everyone slowed down to survey the damage.
In the mornings, as you come out
of the tunnel, you can still smell the smoke and ash in the air.
Since I had Monday off, “Jeannie” and I decided to
go to Costco. We went in for
Halloween candy. We came out
$144.00 later. And that's just
my share.
The trip to Santa Barbara last week went fine, once
you overlook the fact that the travel agent booked everything, flight,
car, hotel for Wednesday even though all of my plans called for going down on
Tuesday.
You just can't trust those
people, can you?
Love, as always,
Pete
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