I would bet about a million people were so happy to see “June gloom” (the marine layer) arrive on May 9, 2009. Its just so sad it did not come as early aslast Tuesday. Mother Nature showed her power once again in a very mean way. In the last week here on the Gold Coast there has been a huge fire. Last Friday it was supposed to rain and if it did, it would have been very unusual, but it did not. Anyway it was just a very nice day to watch the Derby. The week started out like many before . . . sunny, not too cold, but not too hot either. Then on Tuesday we saw smoke in the hills. This was not unusual, but fires do not happen very often this time of the year. Little did we know disaster was on it’s way.
It was a little warmer and the wind was a little worse in the evening, but not horrible. There was not much worry a big fire as it seemed under control early. Wed. was a gorgeous morning of full sun and a cool sea breeze which is perfect May weather. Then about 2:30 pm it started. It was about 72 degrees with a light breeze from the southeast and suddenly our world came apart. There were 20 mile-an-hour winds from the northwest and the temperature went from 72 to 96 in 38 minutes. The wind grew stronger and gustier. It was the beginning of 3 days of terror as houses, mountains , cars and anything in front of the burning inferno was destroyed. This type of fire is called a sun-downer, which is a hot wind from the north that seems to arrive as the sun is setting. This happened for the next 2 days and it was very bad on Thursday again and somewhat nasty on Friday. The fires continued to destroy much in their path despite huge human forces of airplanes, helicopters and thousands of daring Firemen who worked hard to contain the fire. Then Mother Nature seemed to say okay, I will fix it. And here comes the wet fog from the Pacfic and it was under control. This particular fire was called the Jesusita Fire and it was a very brutal and unusual fire due to its early arrival in the fire season. It is, however, a reminder that we are not always in control. She Is! We would like to take this time to thank the 1000’s of rescue personnel fighting this huge firestorm and the many people who took in the escaping animals and families caught in its path. We can criticize the many environmentalist who continue to try to control Mother Nature and create these huge losses to many by stopping the simple give and take of Mother Nature. They create these Horrors. The fire destroyed 10,000 acres and some 40 to a 100 homes and many lives of animals living in these areas and their habitat.
On the Polo side it was Forward ho as the 2009 S.B. season got under way with the 8-goal replacing the former 12-goal league. It was the Walkers + Long Beach giving a spanking to Antelope as the young Guns of Antelope ran into some big game hunters and came out in second place. Up at Piocho it was more of the same as the Cowboys of Piocho sent the Latin flavored New Mexico boys packin’ just about the same way and they are 1 and 0 along with Long Beach. I think the Winners play today and the losers gather up as well in the early game.
Across the big pond its just days away from the start of the Queen’s Cup, one of the big tournaments in the UK. Despite economic problems, which brought U.S. Polo down to 8 teams, the Queen’s Cup has 18 teams competing for this prize. Something does not add up? The UK tournaments are getting bigger and the US tournaments are shrinking. It might be time for some lessons from the Mother Land because the economy is not any better there than it is here and we are blaming it on that!
See ya @ POLO.
-Steve Crowder
805-896-4406