Smug and smoke

"Ah, my fine young apprentice, you have succeeded!" Yes, indeedy-do. My niece scored an A+ for her English assignment. Described as 'brilliant', her teacher copied the story to give to other teachers to read.

For some reason, she was embarrassed by the praise in class - but couldn't wait to tell me. We're all so proud. I can only hope I didn't help too much. The story, twenty pages in length, was hers to tell; I did the editing. On the downside of that, I missed a few punctuation problems - but that's on me.

Should S. decide to continue fiction writing, I'll help - until she becomes rich and shameless.

* * *

Like a lot of other people, I've been glued to the teev for the reports on the Californian fires. I've also been dismayed at reports of comments by people who think it's okay to say Malibu should burn because it's full of rich people. I'm sure those who aren't wealthy and who have lost everything are as devastated as those with money. These fires don't discriminate; nor should the public.

One commented on why anyone would want to live in such a fire-prone area. Well, why would you live in an earthquake zone, Tornado Alley, a hurricane area, a blizzard area or a flood plain? Mostly, I think, because the positives of the area outweigh the negatives. It's a lottery as to where disaster will strike next. As you'll have noted, some houses survived the fires while the neighbour's house didn't.

We get barbaqued here, too. I don't know what this year will bring, we're still hoping for a La Nina event, even a little one. It's been a few years since the last major burn; I don't think we're in for a roasting, but like I said, it's a lottery and Mother Nature is one fickle being.

My thoughts and good wishes are with the firefighters and all those affected by this catastrophe. And to the Democratic Senator who blames Bush because all those National Guardsmen that could have been home fighting the fires, are fighting in Iraq instead: You're an ill-informed, hate-blinded, publicity-hungry, xenophobic, idiot!