Here in Napa, air is clear and still, looking westward towards Sonoma you can see a haze hanging. I'm sure there's a ton of particulate floating around as the sun is about to rise.

This morning on SF Gate

quote:

Fire activity was moving swiftly toward Larkfield-Wikiup and Mark West, two unincorporated communities of Sonoma County north of Santa Rosa, late Sunday night. Sheriff's deputies were using sirens to warn any remaining residents and order them to evacuate immediately.

An immediate evacuation order for the neighborhood around Faught Road, from Shiloh Road to Old Redwood Highway. The neighborhood is east of Highway 101 and south of Shiloh Ranch Regional Park. Residents there had already been warned to evacuate, but deputies made a final pass through the area to ensure everyone was out.

This is the exact area that got affected during the '17 Tubbs Fire which raced through and jumped 101. While affluent around the Mayacama Golf Resort, those folks are having bad flashbacks from 2-years ago. News conference update from CalFire at 9am.

The company I work for is headquartered in Marin county, just south of Sonoma, where the Kincade Fire is still roaring out of control.

Yesterday, an email went out from one of our tech support staff notifying everyone that power was out to HQ, and would likely remain out until this Thursday. The request was that remote offices step up to handle support requests.

Well, not so fast, bucko! Our phones are VoIP devices, managed out of -- you guessed it -- HQ. None of our phones are working. We use Google mail so we are still able to field email messages, but we have no way other than mail to contact customers.

The thing that baffles me (well, not really) is that our California employees still think the problem is PG&E's and not the fact that the legislature has gone tits over ass to restrict the ability to prevent and/or fight wildfires.

So, we'll be on our own for most of the week. This may hurt my employer, but there's nothing in my power to do anything about it. I'll be required to travel there in January (and don't get me started on the bozo managing travel arrangements -- I'll rant about that in another thread), something I am -NOT- looking forward to.

And now you have this as a result:

Some Silicon Valley Businesses Consider Leaving Due To Unreliable Electric Grid

This is the USA, not some Third World shithole where you'd expect this! WTF, California! You people are your own worst enemy I swear.

It's a lot of smoke...

Very smokey this morning. Oakland with smoke looks like LA did with smog in the 80s.

Haven't had power since 10pm Saturday. Might be turned on this afternoon. Probably getting turned off again tomorrow. I guess grocery shopping is out tonight.

I've arrived home from my "vacation." I'd forgotten to close one window in my home and there's soot all over that particular room. But there's power! It's going to be a crazy next few days returning to work and getting the backlog of stuff out to my customers, but it's good to see life returning to normal.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Some Silicon Valley Businesses Consider Leaving Due To Unreliable Electric Grid

Spreading Silicon Valley across the US would be a fantastic silver lining to this mess.

So if you drive a Tesla and PG&E cuts your power. I guess you have an petro powered vehicle as backup?

quote:

Originally posted by Hangtime:
So if you drive a Tesla and PG&E cuts your power. I guess you have an petro powered vehicle as backup?

Or a fossil-fuel powered generator at the house. (The smoke might disable solar power.)

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:

quote:

Originally posted by Hangtime:
So if you drive a Tesla and PG&E cuts your power. I guess you have an petro powered vehicle as backup?

Or a fossil-fuel powered generator at the house. (The smoke might disable solar power.)

flashguy

Better two. The propane powered one on automatic and with a flip of the transfer switch the diesel-powered welder/generator serves to backup the backup.

Something about living on a ranch and being responsible for your own water, sewer, and domestic electric makes you fond of backup. That said, it does give one an appreciation for the many challenges that public utilities face that those who just flip on a switch and expect light or open a tap and expect water may not have.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Spreading Silicon Valley across the US would be a fantastic silver lining to this mess.

As long as it was just spreading the jobs and money and not the libtarded attitudes that seem to infest that place.

quote:

Originally posted by slosig:

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Spreading Silicon Valley across the US would be a fantastic silver lining to this mess.

As long as it was just spreading the jobs and money and not the libtarded attitudes that seem to infest that place.

You got that right! Preach it, brother!

flashguy

We lost power as a severe cold front is rolling through here in the Blue Ridge Mts.

Walked outside fueled up the genny, plugged it in and went back to what ever I was doing...

Be prepared and don’t sweat the small stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
And now you have this as a result:

Some Silicon Valley Businesses Consider Leaving Due To Unreliable Electric Grid

This is the USA, not some Third World shithole where you'd expect this! WTF, California! You people are your own worst enemy I swear.

California drank the Kool-aid that keeps most of the Third World from improving lives there, so there's no surprise. If it weren't for Hollywood and Silicon Valley, they'd be even worse off.

PS. If you know people who think a country's being Third-World is permanent, ask them to explain the rise of Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea in the post-war era. If those three countries had adopted Californian policies, they'd still be Third World economies.