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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2/12/25 4:46 AM, glen wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:ebdcf095-273d-43b7-8e9c-f8fba27c6d0b@gmail.com">Who
drives to the pub? That's just stupid.
<br>
</blockquote>
Excellent point!<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:ebdcf095-273d-43b7-8e9c-f8fba27c6d0b@gmail.com">
<br>
I can't help but worry about my lack of empathy for at least
*some* of the victims of wildfire and flooding. The boundary
between the wilderness and society shouldn't be peppered by
residential homes. We should all live in town and take brief
sojourn out into the world. Of course, we do have to farm and
incubate meat. But the right way to do that is to commute from
town to the farm, do the work, then commute back. OK. Maybe you've
got a *camp* out right next to the farm for multi-day tasks. But
it's a minimal camp, not a sprawling compound ... more like a fire
lookout.
<br>
<br>
If you can't walk to the pub, grocery store, pharmacy, etc. then
you're the problem. Speaking of which, I loved this movie:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Banshees_of_Inisherin">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Banshees_of_Inisherin</a>. Lots of
walking to the pub.
<br>
</blockquote>
<p>I agree with the sentiment... those of us who live far enough
from the pub we can't wander down (as in Inisherin) at will
shouldn't be going to the pub. Now I've got two good hips (but no
dorsiflexion in one foot) I could probably walk the 8 miles (each
way) for a beer but probably won't... If I want good beer, I
*should* in fact move closer (or camp out next to the pub... pitch
tent or appliance box.</p>
<p>I live in a flood plain. The entire Espanola/Pojoaque valley
was once under hundreds of feet of water (huge lake all the way to
Dixon/Abiquiu and the the "barrancas" are the remains of hundreds
of feet of sediment left. after the rio grande rift finally shifed
enough to crack the lava dam that formed (among other things)
Buckman Mesa. In "modern" times, the watershed just north of
Buckman periodically washed silt and and and gravel through the
region where my house is. Before Abiquiu and El Vado and Heron
Dams were built (30s or later) this area probably had a minor
flood every few years. San Ildefonso proper sits back about 1/4
mile from the Rio Grande and I assume the pueblo adobes were
always above flood line... they are probably 20' elevation above
me. When 502 (from Pojo to LA) was widened from a windy 2 lane
to a raised 5 lane in the 80s, it became a dam with very well and
poorly in some cases placed giant culverts channeling those flood
waters into arroyos, one of which runs 50' behind my property.
Every once in a while it runs hot and hard for an hour with 6'
cresting waves above the 4' high berm put there to protect us from
these ravages. Maybe 10 years ago it broke out of it's channel
*opposite* our houses and flooded the Pueblo fields (been fallow
since I moved here in 2000) leaving a foot of silt and sand...
possibly making it freshly fertile in spite of not being
cultivated. My neighbors freaked out, especiallly noting that
their homeowner's insurance didn't cover flooding (because flood
plain?). No water broke over the berm (mini-levee) "protecting
us" and in fact the de-channelization of the arroyo into the
fields allowed the arroyo to fill up and now a 1' depth of water
flows out into the fields (as nature wanted it to be?) <br>
</p>
<p>My house is far from "flood" or "fire" proof but I *have done a
few things to harden it against such and before I gifted my
tractor away, was prepared to cut drainage and berm around my
house in short order to reinforce the existing (artificial)
topography if needed. My ground floor is 1' above grade with
only one door on the "uphill side" which a small stack of sandbags
could easily divert another foot or two of depth? Beyond that, my
whole ground floor could take a few feet of water with little
post-flood residual problem than muddy floor/furniture/cabinets.
Most could be recovered with shovel, wheelbarrow and hose? Maybe
could get into my electrical boxes 1.5' off the floor? Oh yeh...
lots of water damaged books... I have too many anyway. I doubt
that short of the "was a lake" period has ever brought more than a
foot or two of water over my home footprint. My neighbors are
downhill a few feet each, so might be yet more vulnerable and are
much more modern-construction (mine being a pole-barn with
brick-over adobe floor) and a lot more sensitive to inconveniences
than I.</p>
<p>Bottom line, my house is paid off and if it washes away and
nobody wants to pay to replace it, "oh well". A decade ago, the
bank would be bent out of shape perhaps. If I quit paying my
mortgage. But they could foreclose on the lot, scrape off all my
residue and fire-sale it for more than the remaining balance and
some labbie would build a mcMansion in it's place. Everyone
happy (except maybe me?)! 200k of improvement!<br>
</p>
<p>I've a good friend who *literally* got his (90yo) parents moved
out of the home they built in the 50's in Pacific Palisades and
into an assisted living 3 months before the fires. Their
assisted living evacuated them to a sister facility a few miles
away. The parents don't fully apprehend what has happened.
There was (during the sale) indication that the property value was
dominated by the location/land not the home (70 years old in
modest shape)... and probably whoever bought gets FEMA money (or
bulldozers) to do the work they would have had to do on their own
nickel to destroy the home to build a mcMansion. *they* dodged a
bullet... but <sigh> the false economies of it all!</p>
<p>Damn! I wish I was close enough to walk to the Pub! </p>
<p>I <b>AM</b> close enough to walk to Edith Warner's tea house,
but that hasn't operated for 80 years and the little store "run by
a Mexican" in San I where Julian (Maria the Potter's husband) used
to get his whiskey (famous for going on benders) has been
shuttered since the 20s or 30s? There are still the husks of
about 5 "tienditas" between me and Pojoaque... each within walking
distance of virtually everyone in the vally. Also those probably
closed after the era of the automobile (20s, 30s, 40s, 50s).
Some still maintain their paintjobs, some are flaked off but still
show some lettering. <br>
</p>
<p>You are right as usual... we've gone astray and I probably
celebrate *all* the wrong aspects of our tangential behaviour.
Gonna go jump in my Chevy Volt and limp up to Los Alamos for a
watercolor class today... maybe grab a beer to drink with another
<i>Pieter from SA</i> who is also practicing watercolor with me
under the watchful eye of a retired Taiwanese woman who talks
(anti Han Chinese) politics the whole time! She is an excellent
watercolorist however.<br>
</p>
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