Run!

Well I guess DA has died today.  You all will have to go HERE  (on patreon) or HERE (www.chateaugrief.com) to see this week's landscape (if I do say so myself, pretty snazzy bonus pic)  I'll try and link everything up in a few hours.  Sorry!

Edit: working now!

RUN!

Here we depict a bad situation to be in, complete with the mysterious ‘blue sparks’ that people are alleged to have seen during the Napa fires.  This is the view that tells you that you should have gotten out of dodge earlier.  FIRE!  As you may have heard, Napa Valley wine prices just shot through the roof last week when the 245,000 acres burned up over the course of like, 6 hours.  Right in the middle of harvest too. My relatives up there are all safe, and no one’s house has burned down.    Many others haven’t been so lucky, the death toll is over 50 now and I suspect will end up much higher than that when all is said and done.  (ie. there are at least 500 people missing)  

The official statement from the Napa Fire chief is that they’re just going to tend the fire line and let the fires burn out over the winter and that people should expect to see stuff on fire until the rains start.  The area is so large and the brush so thick that there’s no plausible way to put it out.  Did you know that this has happened before?  In 1964, the Hanley fire  raced through Napa in exactly the same way, followed the same path to Santa Rosa, moved as quickly, and started in the same location.  (which I personally confirmed with a forest service fireman that the fire lines were within a couple hundred feet of each other)  Interesting geology/climatology there to create that effect, but the real lesson to be learned, I think, is clear cut your brush people!  California is dry, but the plants grow well, so over the years you’ll get 60 foot thick patches of greasewood, creosote and chaparral, all of which have an oil fuel inside to help it get going real good.  Add in a 70 mph wind, and <10% humidity, and well, things tend to go up in smoke.  But not naturally, the fire department has pointed out.  98% of wildfires are caused by people (put out your campfires please) and in the case of the 2017 Napa fires, they’ve ruled out lightning as a cause.  I find it strange that they haven’t come out with a cause yet , considering how easy it is to identify the source and cause of wildfires, at least from the usual causes.  If it was arson, it was quite a coordinated operation, with five fires started simultaneously ringing the valley, if it was accidental, that’s quite a coincidence.  If it was some weird concatenation of weather? It’s nearly impossible to research because Napa Valley has weird weather all the time, weird is normal in California and locals love to complain about the weather, wet or dry, as being unusual.  It’s a California pastime, right up there with listing off the highway numbers you took to travel to an event to everyone you meet.  And saying ‘dude’.  And uptalk?  

I blame Xander.  I don’t know why, but it’s his fault somehow.  It always is.  - Gen. R. Grant