Thank you san gabriel mountains

Thank you san gabriel mountains
Originally uploaded by geefunk

Guess what's missing in this picture? In the far horizon? Give up? THE MOUNTAINS!!! I can't believe how bad it is out now. Looks like our mountains are providing refuge for the smoke. great. I hope
anaheim doesn't look like this.

Now that you're turning 26, what are you gonna do next?

I'M GOING TO DISNEYLAND!

That's right ladies and gents, tomorrow the hubs and I are off to Disneyland! And the best part, we got 2 free tickets from a kind season pass holder! Please pray for our lungs & overall health. I'm hoping for minimal crowds due to the poor air quality and the fires still raging in the O.C [not to sound insensitive or anything]. At this point, we all wish the fires were out an rain would come to clean our air, but that ain't happening. So we'll make the best of it tomorrow. We were thisclose to canceling our visit, but we'll be alright.

I probably won't be posting anything until next week. I'll be working on Monday [my actual b-day] so I'll blog then. However, now that I know I can blog pictures from my cell phone thru my flickr account, rest assured that if anything catches my eye that must be blogged right away, I will.

So what else is on the birthday agenda?
Jack shit.

I still haven't decided how to celebrate with the rest of my peeps. They keep asking, but I'm not so into planning anything this year. I really don't want meet up for dinner either. Been done too much. Maybe I just really don't want to do anything. So h'm giving myself more time to decide. If I come up with something then we'll do it next Saturday....not this one. If anyone has any fun last minute ideas.....please share.

My weekend starts tomorrow....yes....i'm rubbing it in. So have a good one party people!

Brush fires & illegal immigrants

I recently read a news article over at ABC News, that brought to light another group of people that a greatly suffering thru these brush fires. According to the article:

"An estimated 2 million illegal immigrants live and work deep in the burning California hills. Many of them have no homes to lose — their nights are spent in sleeping bags adjacent to the fields they pick when the sun rises.

It's their lives that are in danger."

The story goes on to describe how at one farm, the owner was forcing the immigrants to continue working even though the smoke was getting thicker and it was hard to see and breath. The farm owner did not care that the other side of the road had been evacuated.

"At a tomato field in rural Rancho Santa Fe, on the border with San Diego, Morones found himself in the middle of a dilemma. The homes on the city side of the street were under mandatory evacuation orders, but the farm just across the street was not. Because of that, the owner of the field wanted his workers to keep picking.

Lives in the Balance

"Why are these guys that own this land making these guys still work?" Morones said. "It's inhumane, these conditions."

The workers were afraid that if they left, even for their own safety, they would lose their jobs when the fire threat is over."

At the end of the article we learn that the farm owner finally agrees to let them go, and the workers are finally convinced that it is safe to go to the shelters.

This story is something that affects us all. Imagine if all our farm workers, even just half of them, were deported. Say good by to your precious fruits and vegetables Californians. I have not heard one report about what's happening all the farm workers in the San Diego county. Can you imagine how much fear they are experiencing right now. Not knowing whether to risk their lives and stay at the farms they work at, or risk being deported when arriving at a shelter. There were rumors that the border patrol was checking for identification at shelter. It was also reported that many immigrants turned themselves in a the Otay border when the fire began to grow.

This article really spoke to me today and I had to share it with my readers. Click on the link below to read the entire article. My crappy paraphrasing doesn't do it justice.

Click here to read the entire article.

YouTube Tuesday

What a day. A crazy 2 days. Lately I've been glued to all kinds of reports about the fir. For some reason though, I seem to be most concerned with San Diego. It baffles me considering I haven't lived there in over 3 yrs. But I guess we all look for a way to connect. Especially being so far from these fires. Living in these Pasadena/Altadena foothills that have been spared [knock on wood] it's easy to remain oblivious to the severity of the situation at hand and feel unaffected. But we are all affected one way or another.

The following video is of a San Diego news anchor giving a report from the site of his burning home. It's beyond sad. My heart goes out to him and the thousands of people that have been displaced by the fires. I've had a chance to check in with my SD friends, and they mostly live in the city, so they have not been affected by evacuations.