Yesterday Sam and I went to Newport as you know... a few miles down the freeway we could see the smoke hanging in the air.

 

40 minutes later we stopped at Home Depot in Moreno Valley the smell of fire was STRONG!  We bought a sink for Redondo, plumbing fixtures, and stain for the front door of Newport [red mahogany or cherry walnut we have decided]

 

The we headed over to Farmer Boys for some breakfast... where we received some bad news - Redondo was RED TAGGED

[stop all work immediately]

 

SHIT SHIT SHIT a Red tag alone is $250

 

Two doors down from Redondo a brand new 3 story home is being built and when the roof inspector saw our guys working on our old deck he sent a code enforcer over...

 

I guess the lady was a total bitch...  Our Forman kept telling her... we do not need a permit to replace old boards on a deck... we did not BUILD a NEW deck...  She says yes you do... and you need one for a new kitchen... we said No you don't if you are replacing the OLD CABINETS!

 

Then she goes and waits for our guys to leave!  When our Forman doesn't leave she goes back and tells him to!  He said "I live here, I am NOT leaving!" [he does live there during the week while working on the house] 

So she storms off in a huff...

 

SHIT SHIT

 

Anyway... I hate the permit game... its a racket!   [all the city is doing is generating fees... its bullshit... permits are fine when you are doing MAJOR work... but for what we are doing... its bullshit!]

 

The worst cityfor permits is Palm springs, Ca... that is why Sonny Bono became mayor... he was so sick of dealing with the city for changes to his restaurant in town... he ran for Mayor... and won!

 

Anyway...  after our foreman went down to the city and explained to them what we were doing... made drawings for them... they approved our work...

AFTER paying the city $400 in fees... $250 for the red tag, $116 for an investigative fee... etc.. etc...  Ooooo that makes me SO DAMN ANGRY!

 

Not to mention paying our foreman his pay to do it...

 

Back to my story... 

 

 we left Newport and drove to the City of Orange [by the orange county fire] it was raining ash from the sky there... the trees were all knocked over from the severe winds they had too...

 

Usually we have to be on the freeway back home by 1:00 pm or we will sit in bumper to bumper traffic for 5 hours to get home... Not yesterday... traffic was so light!  we left at 2:30 and breezed home no problem.

 

One last thing I would like to say about these fires here... I dont know what you all are hearing about them but things are going really well with it... I talked to Sam's cousin Pam who's daughter has been evacuated because of the Fallbrook fire... they say everything is going so smoothly... they have a channel on the local TV just for updates, the reverse 911 calls saved a lot of lives, they had a town meeting and over 3500 people showed up... she said it was very informative...  she was so impressed...

I guess at one point... at Qualcomm stadium there were more EMT's and DR's than evacuees!

So my question is this... why are people reporting things are not being handled?  I don't get it?  Yes, the water dropping planes couldn't go up but it was because of wind...

 

I personally saw a huge line of fire trucks leaving the OC fire and heading up to the Arrowhead one...

 

I dont get it...  why all the negativity in the media?  why dont they report the positive?

 

So... thats all I have to say about that!

 

Oh ya... I won't be around for the next 2 days... our races for the weekend have been cancelled due to smoke and we have a National in Arizona Nov 2 to Nov 12...

 

So we are going to the track in Arizona to practice for the National... we leave at 12pm Friday... and come home Saturday after they practice... [I have to be home for Football on Sunday!!!]  The track is only 3 1/2 hours away...

 

and thats all I have to say about that ;)