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He's the originator of this thread. Unless he's moved, he's a good distance from the nearest fire (Malibu). On another note, last night I went down to "The O.C." to visit a friend. While his home isn't in danger, the acrid smoke combined with the fact that he has cats is wreaking havoc with...

Thanks for explaining this TC. One thing also worth mentioning is that with the San Diego fires in particular, I noticed a lot of footage of burning homes near eucalyptus groves. If I'm not mistaken, burning eucalyptus trees are particularly hazardous, and were a major factor in the 1991...

I can't speak for their effectiveness, but this company says that its products make wood shake roofs legally acceptable with CA's building codes: Chemco: Fire Retardant Roofing It helps but again it's not a cure all. As I stated above, I saw footage of burning houses that had...

I'm surprised this isn't already mandatory for anyone wanting to be an Australian citizen.

Untreated wood-shake roofs have been banned in California for many years. Those that you still see are either treated, very convincing-looking fakes, or are the original roof to that house. While there are still some untreated wood shake roofs still in use, in eastern San Diego County where...

Eastern San Diego County is absolutely taking the brunt...over 500 homes lost so far. Entire neighborhoods went up in flames simply because there weren't enough firefighters to go around. 300 THOUSAND people have been evacuated...that's 1 out of 10 people in the entire county. Lake...

Consider a prepaid cell phone. All the major carriers have prepaid plans, as well as a host of small providers. You can even get them at 7-11, believe it or not. In addition to the convenience, there is also the safety factor involved, especially as in SoCal at least the payphone is quickly...

Blackberries are even worse than standard cell phones. Now your boss can make you work during your off-duty time as well :shakehead:

Very true. A couple of times I've found myself on the "incorrect" (relative to the locals' point of view) side of the road in both the UK and Australia if I was tired or simply wasn't paying attention. Fortunately both times they occurred in parking lots or on very lightly travelled streets.

Actually, from the several times I've visited the UK, I've noticed that the cars I've rented there still have the turn signal on the left and the windshield wipers on the right. I'm guessing it's due to European car manufacturers having to design cars for both sides of the road, and that's one...

So you're saying that continental Europe and all of North America (remember I'm including the Canadians and the Mexicans in this too) are uncivilized? To the OP: we need left hand drive countries, so I can brag that when I'm vacation, I have driven on the "wrong" side of the road :D...

If you haven't seen it already, here in the US for the Travelocity website there is a mildly amusing commercial where the "Roaming Gnome" tries to debunk commonly held travel myths. One of them was the use of American appliances overseas, and when he does plug one in you see the gnome being...

But at least with XP there was greater system stability over earlier versions of Windows, and for many (including myself) that was worth the cost in both software and possible hardware upgrades as well as the incompatibility risks. As you said yourself, Vista doesn't make any significant...

Just remember our house current is 110 volt and not 220 and our plugs look different :eyebrow:

That's great unless: 1. You're out of cell phone range 2. Your cell phone battery is dead and you forgot to bring the charger and there isn't an available landline phone nearby 3. AAA is backlogged on calls. Ever try to get AAA in SoCal to come out on a rainy day when they're mostly...

OK missed that part. One point I'd like to make...don't count on those "donut" temporary spares. One of the most useless inventions. Every care that I've owned that had one had its donut spare replaced with a full size wheel and tire. Yeah that left a bit of a hump in the trunk carpeting but...

I got as a Christmas present several years ago a small air compressor that works off the cigarette lighter. It's small enough to keep in a corner of the trunk of my car. It's slow compared to real gas station air hoses, or even a home handyman-grade compressor, but it's saved me a few times...

Check with your own health insurance, they may cover you overseas as well for emergencies, though you may have to pay out of pocket first and then request reimbursement. I always purchase trip insurance w/emergency medical coverage for any trips outside the US and Canada. AAA's insurance is...

I use Kaspersky which for the most part I've been pretty happy with. The only problem I've encountered is that on my Vista desktop, for some reason it will occasionally turn itself off. At least Windows will notify me when this is the case. Because of this I no longer leave my email program open...

I think if you can see enough to see the lid is down, you can see enough to see the seat is up.