July 15, 2015
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Bits and Pieces -- 7/15/15
Last week I drove past the site where hopefully a retirement community will be built in another year or two. If that happens, it is likely that I will live somewhere on these hills. The trees in front and those on the crest of the hill are orange trees. It is part of a new community being built about 2 miles inland from Dana Point.
And a couple of days ago there was a fire that was visible from the roads near where I live -- although the fire itself was about 20 miles away. At this time of year, the eyes quickly scan the horizon for smoke clouds, often similar to thunder clouds, but often like this -- you can spot them because they are alone in clear skies.
Ironically, this particular fire began when a CalTrans (road department) employee was mowing the grass alongside one of the freeways. Over the last couple of days, it has grown to about 260 acres, and is pretty well contained. Two abandoned houses were burned, and a major campground was evacuated. It could have been much more serious, though, as it was in a canyon area, bordered not far away from homes. The smoke you see in these photos disburses over time and becomes part of the polluted air we breathe -- there were air quality warnings yesterday in much of the area. Drones have become quite an issue this year in fighting brush fires -- they've had to suspend aerial drops of phoscheck several times because of concerns about the big fixed-wing planes colliding with drones observed in the fire areas! Even a 10-minute suspension is significant, and phoscheck drops are the most effective way of stopping the flames.
Talking of weather concerns, I had a short email today from Zakiah (ZSA_MD), saying that there had been a tornado in their city overnight. They have no power, and there was lots of damage in Quincy, but her family is well and unharmed. She only had access to the internet through her phone, so didn't say more.
And in other strange news, I have been completely off-line for a couple of days. Late Monday evening, I was on the web, and a popup appeared encouraging me to update Adobe's flash player. I did, and immediately my computer was infected with 169 viruses! On Tuesday morning I took the computer to Staples, and they have cleaned the viruses from it, and updated all the programs that needed updating. The lesson learned is to NEVER follow popups to update anything (I knew that, but this looked real, and I was getting sleepy!). Today on the news, I learned that Adobe is suspending its flash player because of the susceptibility to hackers! I now am back on-line with a cleaned computer -- it feels like a new computer now!
Comments (10)
I hope the new houses are to your liking. I will contact Zakiah with a message.
Goodness, these virus mongers are sneaky. I have four sites, from which I allow Pop-ups. None of them are insidious.
It's an interesting location -- not as good as their original plan, but still not far from everything!
Yes, the virus came in on a popup about updating flash player -- it even led to another page about how to get rid of it!!! I heard yesterday that Adobe is suspending flash player because of the susceptibility to hacking!
I was warned about the Flash. Flashers are always bad. My old NoteBook got killed by viruses. I was using an unprotected NoteBook and using Starbuck's wi-fi. I had to buy a new one.
Hope your next move will go well. I would like to move, but we have collected to much stuff, would have to put up a sign, "can't find $10,000 in boxes---No one allowed on property."Then leave all the doors open and leave.
Staples did an excellent job cleaning the virus out of my computer and updating what needed to be updated. My move is not likely to happen for about 2-1/2 years -- ground has not yet been broken! It will be a 2-year project to clear out all the extra 'stuff' I've collected in 25 years here!
I've been seeing the notices about Flash Player too ~ need to call my tech and see whether I should just uninstall the whole thing ~
I think it's probably ok to leave it alone -- but don't EVER agree to let it update. Windows 10 is coming in a couple of weeks, too, and that may do away with flash player completely when it's installed.
Those things are so sneaky! I hope the fire is well contained and possibly out by now.
It seems to be still at 3,500 acres, but still burning. It will burn overnight, but it seems to have moved away from the freeway -- they just opened the NB lanes! I think I saw that it's about 35% contained -- that may mean only that the freeway now is acting as a firebreak!
Oops -- wrong fire! The one from my 7/15 post is nearly out, but still going a little. It takes a while to put out all the hot spots and call it completely out! That fire is close to contained, at least. My previous reply relates to tonight's post about FIRE! Will copy it to there, and add a little there as well.
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