Sitting 2 rows in front of me on the flight to Tampa, FL from Santa Barbara, CA, is a man I was behind in both the checkin line and the security line. He spent about 5 minutes at the checkin counter searching through his bags. He didn’t have any photo id with him.
He was checked in, but the ticket agent warned him that he might have problems at security. His bag was sent to security for screening. I was again behind him as we approached the counter where they check ID and boarding passes. He explained to the TSA agent that he didn’t have any photo ID with him, but he did have his checkbook. He was pulled to the side and a supervisor was called. I proceeded through security with no problems.
When I boarded, he was already in his seat. So much for knowing exactly who is flying. What a joke airport security is. 🙁

Last week, the below letter to the editor appeared in our local Carpinteria paper, The Coastal View News : 

My reply was printed in this week’s edition.  I have reproduced it below :

Over the years we have experienced the heartbreak of friends and family moving away from sunny southern California.  All those people made the decision after carefully weighing all their options.  After many years (for some) of separation, I just wanted to give them a reminder of what they are missing.

Here is the local weather for some of the places that people have moved to :

Yikes!
Oh, just to make my point, below is the weekend forecast for Carp.

Last night from our loft balcony, we could see a fire burning in Montecito.  Toby found out that it was burning through Westmont and all the students had been evacuated.  The house next door is a rental with 3 Westmont students / recent grads and at about 10p Toby brought them up to look at the fire from our roof.  The group lifted up prayers.  Carpinteria is relatively far from the fires.

The best information is at The Santa Barbara Independent Newspaper  although the website is very slow right now.

A nifty map of the evacuation areas and the fires is at Google Maps

Google Street View is a feature of Google Maps and Google Earth that provides 360° panoramic street-level views and allows users to view parts of selected cities and their surrounding metropolitan areas at ground level.  (from Wikipedia)

Someone went by and took pictures of the neighborhood most of Carpinteria, but when I key in my address, Google shows the alley (Cedar Place) in back.  If you follow the arrows around the block you can get to the front of the house.  It looks like these pictures were taken at the end of last year, as the scaffolding on the East side came down around January 2008.

Here is a link to 4922 8th Street, which seems to be the closest one can get to the actual address.

http://tinyurl.com/3zaptg