We May not Know How to Drive in the Rain but We can sure Drive in a Fire

….ummm.. we’re still here. Long story short: because of the fires and the absences at work caused by them, it was felt that our overall benefit to society and the project office as a whole would best be served ashore rather than at sea.

As noted by KT over at The Scratching Post, the post below, and in an article we're trying to relocate and will link to when we find it, the general behavior displayed by the citizenry in the face of this disaster has been outstanding. And you want real Sunday manners? Just wait ‘til FEMA gets here!

We were struck by the irony of getting word this afternoon that the first of FEMA aid and support will start arriving tomorrow after it appears we may have turned a corner today with the winds dying down and the first evacuation cancellation notices being issued this afternoon.

Hey, what if FEMA showed up and there wasn’t a disaster?

And this isn’t to slam anybody’s performance or lack thereof at either the Agency or the upper levels of government. It is simply indicative of how much inertia is to be overcome when you are talking about getting a huge federal bureaucracy off top-dead-center. Its just a fact.

But anyway, back to our uncommon civility that has been on display here. Let’s not get too congratulatory – let’s not do too much back-slapping. We live in San Diego, afterall, where it is humanly impossible to be angry, upset or angst-ridden for too long.

Back in ’99 or ’00 the WTO or some such other NGO was having their get-together up in Seattle to plot the crushing of the world's underclasses and the disgruntled ones showed up and trashed the city in protest . The WTO was going to convene down here in San Diego the following month and everyone was worried that these middle-class anarchist knuckle-heads would do the same thing to our fair city.

We recall telling several friends that nothing of the sort would happen. The coddled little brats would show up with their placards and black masks all full of ill will and discontent and upon descending on San Diego they would…… they would….. go to the beach…. go to Balboa Park…. hang out and take pictures from Mt. Soledad or Cabrillo Nat’l. Monument. "….hey, do you want to take a drive up the coast? or maybe chill in O.B? I hear they have actual hippies there….."

… and that’s precisely what happened. Don’t get us wrong – we’re proud of our city. We’re coping but this isn’t going to be a sprint. This particular disaster is going to have a very long tail as people try to put their lives back together absent a place to call home. We aren't near out of the woods yet but we do see a glimmer of hope off in the distance.