Wildfires: my second encounter

Wildfires Rage Across Southern California

First time wildfires even registered with me was a month ago, when my bus to the Hollywood Bowl for an evening concert was super-slow due to the firetrucks rushing to the Hollywood Hills to put out a wildfire. That evening, all through the concert (of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No.1, not exactly a loud piece), helicopters ferried water overhead. That was quite an experience.

And this morning, I overheard someone describing how they had been evacuated from their home (somewhere in the outskirts of LA) because wildfires were raging a mile or two from them. Because I'm entrenched indoors for much of the working week, my workmates don't tune to radio stations that have news bulletins, and I haven't bothered to put local news alerts on my computer, it's a rare occasion that I even hear of local calamities. But there's no avoiding this one, especially when you can smell the smoke through the ventilation...

So, it was pretty much brought to my attention today that California isn't exactly the safest place to live, what with the constant threat of wildfires, landslides, earthquakes and other stuff I haven't heard of yet. Not to mention the risk of being run down by an inattentive driver (on the phone, putting on makeup, gesticulating to other drivers with *both* hands, you name it, I've seen it). That's all on top of the risk of living in any major city. But hey, at least the homicide rate isn't as high as Scotland's. Or is it? After all, the study may have looked at a country's overall murder stats, and not taken into account the way the sleepy towns in the Midwest greatly lower the average for the US.

So as my diversion from boredom (and that bloody piece of writing I've yet to start on) tonight, I might produce a table of crime rates in the cities I've lived in or spent a decent amount of time in... Then again, that may push me to do some writing. Ha!