Warming Climate Increases Fire

When I first moved to Colorado, back in the last century, forest fires were rare, and they didn't start breaking out until July. Now, they seem to break out just any old time of year and several can burn at once. There are currently so many burning around the state that they aren't even saying how many any more.

Wildfire is licking at the outskirts of Colorado Springs. The High Park fire, the second largest in the state's history and the most destructive in terms of property, burns just outside of Fort Collins. Many homes are destroyed. Domestic animals are homeless. The Larimar County Fairgrounds have become a shelter for displaced horses. Evacuated humans haven't known whether their homes are still standing.

Those of us living in city limits often fancy ourselves immune from wild fires which generally happen way off in the mountains. While the flames generally don't get into the city as far as my house, the effects of the fires occasionally do.

It's one thing to see aerial views of 100 foot flames on TV. It becomes more real when your eyes sting from smoke and you actually see ash blowing around in your parking lot. People with respiratory ailments really suffer, even 60 miles away.

One reason the fires are more serious now than in years past is because of the massive kill off of trees due to the mountain pine beetle. Huge swaths of forest have been reduced to the skeletal remains of dead trees, just waiting to be ignited by lightning or a careless smoker.

The beetles are so deadly because winters are no longer cold enough to kill them off, enabling them to thrive on a massive scale. With a temperature today of 104, I'm inclined to believe that the climate is indeed getting warmer.

 Fire suppression over the last century has changed the natural cycle of fire into potentially huge, deadly super-fires. Add global warming, a pine beetle disaster, and more people living in the mountains and you've got a recipe for trouble. Kind of makes me long for the past. 

Botched IPO Does Not Affect Cute Animal Pictures

Facebook has been in the news for its botched IPO rollout. It seems potential investors and advertisers have a few reservations about the popular social networking tool.

I'm not an investor in Facebook but I am a user. And I think Facebook is a good way to keep in touch. I'm get daily news from friends, family, classmates, and colleagues, and some people who I'm not sure I ever had any connection with.

Facebook is also a great place to see cute animal pictures. Many cute animal pictures. A constant stream of kittens, puppies, giraffes, rabbits, and turtles. I take some responsibility for this. I, myself, have posted pictures of my cats, but they are exceptionally cute.

Of course, Facebook also serves as a dumping ground for political views. It's as if people believe that when they post this stuff, readers will instantly change their minds.

I wonder if anyone's mind has been changed by seeing an unflattering picture of a politician with a caption describing his or her extreme views about a controversial issue. While my mind has not been changed by reading something on Facebook, I have unfriended a few people who post nothing but regurgitated political rhetoric. One person's constant anger was so toxic that I felt the heat from over a thousand miles away. While I agreed with her views, I couldn't stand to face her wrath in the daily postings.

I'm more interested in the joy of a friend who unexpectedly became a grandmother. I like seeing the progress on the pond another friend is building in his back yard.

Though it may be trivial, I like knowing what Peggy the dog is up to. Peggy does, indeed, take the cute animal thing a step further by having her own Facebook account.

I hope people will keep posting news of themselves or I'll have nothing to read about but the outrageous shennanigans of the "republican'ts" and the socialist leanings of "Obamacare."

Fortunately, today there's a picture of a baby rabbit sleeping on top of a dog's head with the caption, "You've got a FRIEND!" Very cute!

Is It Real? Does it Matter?

Does the grape flavoring in candy and pop resemble in any way the actual flavor of real grapes? Does Olive Garden have anything in common with real Italian food? When someone says, "Have a good day," do they really mean it?

What can we depend on to be real in this world? Or does it matter? If you like Olive Garden (which I do), does it matter if it's authentic? If wishing someone a good day might possibly increase feelings of positivity and good will, what's the big deal whether they mean it?

During the events surrounding my father's recent death, my siblings and I continually encountered strangers in public who either told us to have a nice day, or worse, asked us how our day was going. Each time, we cringed and joked that they wouldn't ask if they only knew. One waiter at an Olive Garden competitor was so insistent that we have a "fantastic evening," that one of us finally replied that we really couldn't do that because our father had just died. They peppy young man awkwardly expressed his condolences and turned to leave, but not before one last cheerful wish that we have a terrific night.

 I suspect wait-people get evaluated by how much they say that stuff to every customer, kind of like the number of "flair" items Jennifer Aniston is required to wear in the movie Office Space. (If you haven't seen Office Space, stop reading this, open up a new browser for Netflix, and put it at the top of your queue. Then resume reading this.)

I suppose the have a nice day habit is so ingrained, and in some cases, so required by the corporate script, that such wishes are unavoidable. And truly, there's no way to know whether a patron is having a day so terrible that a cheerfully expressed verbal wish would actually make it worse.

The alternative, I suppose, is that no one would ever wish anyone a good day. I think I'd rather risk being greeted with poorly timed, insincere good wishes than encounter deliberate surliness or indifference.