The World of Scott Mindeaux

Jumping Ahead of Myself

So it’s that time of the year again. Time to adjust those clocks 1 hour ahead in preparation for Daylight Saving Time. DST gives us more sunlight in the afternoons and less in the morning. I’m not a morning person by any means, so any reason for the sun not to blast my apartment is most welcome!

So don’t forget to change your clocks before you go to bed tonight. Your computers should change automatically, as well as your cable boxes, modern dvd players, DVRs and TVs.

Yes I’ll lose an hour of sleep tonight, and it will take me a few days (maybe a week) for my body to adjust to the loss of that hour.

Yawn…

Attacking the Firestorm

The winds have started to die down and that gave the firefighters time to make a stand. This morning a new fire erupted in Diamond Bar. Mandatory evacuations are still in effect for 20,000 Californians. The devastation from the OC fires alone has been very sad. Up in Sylmar over 500 homes in a mobile home housing tract have been destroyed. Scenes from that fire are just sad.

The high pressure system that has parked itself over the West Coast will start to dissipate on Wednesday when temps return to the 70s and humidity returns. 

LA and The OC on Fire again…

Santa Ana winds whipped up brush fires north of Los Angeles and down in Orange County. The OC fire has expanded to more than a brush fire, there are shopping centers, apartment complexes and homes all in its path. We have housing tracts where one house is completely engulfed in flames and the houses next to them are fine. I’ve been watching the live reports from KTLA and KCAL9 and when they do these wideshots from their helicopters you see all these hot spots. The fire spots are so far widespread, there aren’t enough resources to get to all the structures that are on fire. 

The air down here in Mission Viejo seems clear, but there are particulates in the air that aren’t seen that can get lodged in your lungs. The winds aren’t moving too much here and the skies are clear. However, just to the north of me, the skies are full of the smoke that is pushing to the West from the fires. Its just about sunset here and the color of the sunrays is a deep orange.

The closest fires to me are in the Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills area. 

I Felt the Earth Move Under My Feet

Well the big story of the day was the 5.4 earthquake that Southern California experienced earlier today. I was at work talking to a co-worker when there was an initial shake, then a pause, then followed by more shaking. I estimate the quake moved the ground for about 10 seconds. Being the operations guy in the building, you would think I had my procedures down and ducked for cover under the desk.

But, no. I froze actually. I stared out the window and watched as the windows wobbled in the other buildings. I also remember looking up and seeing the mights and the exposed HVAC ducts shaking above me. Once the shaking stopped, most people headed out of the building. I continued on with work – not realizing that I should have left the building as well. A few minutes later, I got up and decided to do a site survey of the our three buildings to make sure there wasn’t anything that needed attention. Luckily, the inspection yielded no results. I even got a chuckle from several employees that I was doing a site survey.

But as Operations/Facilities, that’s my job right? Well one thing that was abundantly clear, the company doesn’t have any established protocols around disaster situations. Looks like I’ll be drafting up some suggestions for new protocols soon.

All in all, Southern California weathered this one and we were all very lucky. This could have easily been worse.The epicenter was in Chino Hills and shook with a 5.4 n th Richter Scale.

Life continues on.

Save The Clock Tower!

A fire at Universal Studios has detroyed the town square from the Back To The Future movies as well as the King Kong exhibit.

The fire started in the early morning hours of Sunday. The fire has also consumed a video vault library. Several events at Universal were postponed including the opening of the park. A live MTV event at the park won’t be affected.

14 Days to Black Friday

Yes…it’s that time of year. 14 days until Black Friday.

Black Friday? It’s the Friday after Thanksgiving and is traditionally the biggest retail day of the year!

My favorite Black Friday site is up and running and already has ads listed for some of the big stores already like Best Buy, Linens n Things, Circuit City, Old Navy and Office Max.

I have used this guide for the last two years to strategize my driving schedule and coordinate sending the nephews out into Best Buy!

Check it out at www.bfads.net