September 2, 2016
Important caveats: Please note that the squares on the heat detection maps represent the expected margin of error, not the size of the area burned. In other words, the detection could have come from anywhere within the square. Also be aware that false detections do sometimes occur. An outlying or “over the line” heat detection is not, by itself, a confirmation that there is fire in the area indicated. In addition, the satellites do not detect heat everywhere that fire exists. Creeping, backing or smoldering fire is often not detected. Finally, the detections are only snapshots of moments in time. Flare ups that occur before or after a satellite pass may be entirely missed.
Also be aware that yellow squares disappear from the map after 6 days. These are not maps of the area burned since the fire began, just maps of where heat has been detected during the past week. Read the rest of this entry »
11 Comments | 
Big Sur, Carmel River, Fire, Flood & Apocalypse, History, Santa Lucias | 
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Posted by xasauan
July 19, 2016
Just a few shots from the days before traffic jams and crowds…
At the Waterfall House with my mother and sister in 1966. Notice how the waterfall drops directly into the ocean. The beach formed after a 1983 landslide put a huge amount of material into the ocean just to the north.
Mom and Sis on the terrace.
Leading Mom around the house (I think this photo is from 1963). To get there, we rode down from the Highway on the funicular car.
2 Comments | Big Sur, Coastal Development/Erosion, History | Tagged: Julia Pfeiffer Burns, Saddle Rock, Waterfall House | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
October 25, 2015
On September 23, the day the Pope declared Junípero Serra a saint, between 20 and 30 people, mostly Native Americans, gathered in the Carmel Mission cemetery to pay respect to Serra’s victims.
The Mission cemetery is small and picturesque; a handful of “Indian Graves” marked by crude wooden crosses and lined with abalone shells. This is all for show.
In reality, there are no individual graves here. This is a mass grave and the soil under foot is rich with human bone fragments. Read the rest of this entry »
6 Comments | History, Politics, Religion | Tagged: Carmel Mission, Felipe de Neve, Junipero Serra, Monterey Presidio | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
August 19, 2015
Concours d’Arrogance: America’s premier celebration of the lifestyle that’s destroying the planet.
My great-grandfather, Alec Eells, was a San Francisco attorney in the 1890’s. That is, his office was in San Francisco. His actual business was all over the state. He needed to be in Sacramento one day, Santa Barbara the next, then back to San Francisco for an early court session, etc. I know this because he kept a careful diary. Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | Fire, History, Politics | Tagged: carmel river, Concours d' Elegance, Concours on the Avenue, Monterey Car Week, Ocean Avenue | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
February 9, 2015
The Carmel River Lagoon in 1947 (Laidlaw Williams photo)
There’s been some uproar lately over the plan to build a flood barrier in the Carmel River Lagoon and people have been asking on social media and elsewhere why anyone would propose to place such an assumed-to-be-ugly wall along the northern margin of such a beautiful wetland. A better question may be whether we can find a way to live our lives that doesn’t prevent steelhead from living at all. Either way, it’s a long story… Read the rest of this entry »
10 Comments | Carmel River, Coastal Development/Erosion, Fire, Flood & Apocalypse, History, Politics, Water | Tagged: Army Corps of Engineers, Ecosystem Protective Barrier, monterey county, Scenic Road Protection Structure, Steelhead | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
January 25, 2015
Junipero Serra
Those of us who are neither Catholics nor saints probably shouldn’t care whom the Pope decides to honor as a saint. After all, previous Popes made saints of some pretty nasty people. They even made saints of some who were entirely fictional. Yet those were just embarrassing mistakes (like torturing tens of thousands of men, women and children to death as witches) made during the bad old Dark Ages, weren’t they? The Church today would never declare someone a saint who hadn’t lived a life that set an extremely high moral and spiritual example, not just for their own time, but for all time. Would they? Read the rest of this entry »
6 Comments | History | Tagged: California Indian Genocide, California Mission, Felipe de Neve, Junipero Serra, La Perouse, Mission Carmel | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
February 6, 2014
Lake Nacimiento
The Reservoir Operations Committee of the Monterey County Water Resources Agency Board meets today to discuss options for dealing with the shrinking San Antonio and Nacimiento reservoirs.
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Leave a Comment » | Big Sur, Carmel River, Fire, Flood & Apocalypse, History, Politics, Santa Lucias, Water | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
