![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shiredancerLa Conchita is about halfway between my home and my parents, maybe 20-25 minutes south of here. (I heard on NPR yesterday morning that it's fifty miles south of Santa Barbara... nahhhh.) It's such a tiny little place, just a cluster of houses nestled at the foot of the hills and one gas station/store. In thirty-three years of living here, I've gone by that town countless times, looking at the little houses and trailers and wondering what it would be like to live in the middle of nowhere like they do. I've never actually stopped off the freeway and visited the town, nor have I ever met anybody who lives there. Huh. And now here it is, making national news and drawing The Ahnold for a visit. It's such a tragedy, that we could all be enjoying the rain so much, and appreciating a little *real* weather in Southern California, and then a mudslide wipes out so many lives.
It happened 10 years ago too, but that time nobody was killed and there were lots of stories of breathtaking escapes, diving out of front doors as the mud poured in from behind. I wonder if that last mudslide left everyone too complacent, thinking that if it ever happened again, it would be the same thing -- enough warning to get out in time? Because I'll tell you, you wouldn't catch me in a house under a hill of dirt in rains like we had last week. When it rains in California, there are mudslides after. You can take that to the bank. I'm just really surprised, and sad, that people didn't evacuate the area closest to the hills. But that's part of the human condition, isn't it -- we never think it will happen to us, or not this time, or... or... or.
Meanwhile, my town is still stranded from much of the rest of the world. The freeway to the south is closed, so -- yippee!!! -- there's no traffic from L.A. Instead there's a pool of boats shuttling people from our port town to Ventura and Oxnard down south -- a new way of commuting around here. We can go north, but not inland -- the mountain pass is closed down too. Truckers are taking the extra five hours to go up the 5 and over to Paso Robles or somewhere and back down the 101. Good thing we're all stocked up and have nowhere to go right now -- we're just hunkering down and waiting it out. Me, I've got nothing to do but get myself to work and back and look after the Kidlet. Work, by the way, is horrible -- I haven't taken a lunch break since the new year began, and have been staying until 7:30 or 8 at night to try to get the applications ready for review.
Speaking of work, there's a little bit of a happy ending to my sad saga of last week. Turns out my student didn't file a grievance against me, it was strictly the TA union. Student was confused by my happy little, honest little sticky note on my letter offering her a job as a reader, because I said she didn't have to respond (as the letter instructed, because I *have* to use the template and official wording dictated by the union). I mean, she was already doing the job -- I was regarding this as just a formality for her records. She just got worried and took it to the union to see if she could lose out on the job by not responding -- they latched right on to my notation on the sticky note that said "sorry this is so late!", and ran with it. "Oh boy, we can clobber a hard-working clerical cuz she was dumb enough to admit she was late with her work!!!!" So, the department now has a grievance letter on file, and I have a slap on the hand, and I'm not to write cheerful little notes to the students anymore. So, fine. *sigh* *grumble*
That's it from paradise. Stay warm, everybody.
It happened 10 years ago too, but that time nobody was killed and there were lots of stories of breathtaking escapes, diving out of front doors as the mud poured in from behind. I wonder if that last mudslide left everyone too complacent, thinking that if it ever happened again, it would be the same thing -- enough warning to get out in time? Because I'll tell you, you wouldn't catch me in a house under a hill of dirt in rains like we had last week. When it rains in California, there are mudslides after. You can take that to the bank. I'm just really surprised, and sad, that people didn't evacuate the area closest to the hills. But that's part of the human condition, isn't it -- we never think it will happen to us, or not this time, or... or... or.
Meanwhile, my town is still stranded from much of the rest of the world. The freeway to the south is closed, so -- yippee!!! -- there's no traffic from L.A. Instead there's a pool of boats shuttling people from our port town to Ventura and Oxnard down south -- a new way of commuting around here. We can go north, but not inland -- the mountain pass is closed down too. Truckers are taking the extra five hours to go up the 5 and over to Paso Robles or somewhere and back down the 101. Good thing we're all stocked up and have nowhere to go right now -- we're just hunkering down and waiting it out. Me, I've got nothing to do but get myself to work and back and look after the Kidlet. Work, by the way, is horrible -- I haven't taken a lunch break since the new year began, and have been staying until 7:30 or 8 at night to try to get the applications ready for review.
Speaking of work, there's a little bit of a happy ending to my sad saga of last week. Turns out my student didn't file a grievance against me, it was strictly the TA union. Student was confused by my happy little, honest little sticky note on my letter offering her a job as a reader, because I said she didn't have to respond (as the letter instructed, because I *have* to use the template and official wording dictated by the union). I mean, she was already doing the job -- I was regarding this as just a formality for her records. She just got worried and took it to the union to see if she could lose out on the job by not responding -- they latched right on to my notation on the sticky note that said "sorry this is so late!", and ran with it. "Oh boy, we can clobber a hard-working clerical cuz she was dumb enough to admit she was late with her work!!!!" So, the department now has a grievance letter on file, and I have a slap on the hand, and I'm not to write cheerful little notes to the students anymore. So, fine. *sigh* *grumble*
That's it from paradise. Stay warm, everybody.
