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Ever get tired of trying to keep up with the latest foo-faddle or ding-doggy to hit the market?

(My latest topic from Consumating.)

Innocence Lost: Tell us when your childhood officially ended.

That's an interesting question, isn't it? It certainly leaves itself open to different interpretations.

I'll have to go with getting my high school diploma from a local charter school in order to attend classes at Victor Valley College (I was 13 and homeschooled). The other students at the college were much more 'seedy', for lack of a better word, than most of the people I had associated with before (family friends, homeschoolers at conferences). I had to do some growing up fast, but by all accounts I've heard I'm still quite glad I never went to a public high school!

(From Consumating)

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That September...in the raaaain

The first two days of September brought thunderstorms to the mountain community of Wrightwood, giving much-welcomed rain to the entire tri-community area. Of course, since the region immediately north of the mountains happens to be an alluvial fan, the sudden influx of precipitation caused a flash flood in the Sheep Creek wash, rendering Phelan Road, Palmdale Road, and Bear Valley Road impassable. After church on September 2nd, my parents and I drove up to Wrightwood as the weather looked promising, and sure enough before we even reached the ice cream shop there was a strong downpour and plenty of nearby lightning strikes. I enjoyed the storm almost as much as the ice cream. On the way back down to Phelan/Pinon Hills I convinced my parents to drop me off at the wash where it crosses Bear Valley Road (also known as Duncan, Seville, and Madrid at other stretches). There had been some flow the previous day from the thunderstorm on September 1st, but I suspected that today's would be much worse because the ground was no longer dry and thirsty. My sister was on her way home to do some tabletop RPG gaming with her boyfriend, her cousins, and others, so while I was standing there waiting for the flood she drove by and decided to stay and watch with me. I still haven't seen the photos she took with her Zire but they should be good. We heard a rumbling sound before we could see the flooding, and a few minutes later we spotted it a good ways off - that's when I took the photograph above. You can see water but it's not as obvious without motion. It took a few minutes to reach us but it was still exciting to watch it pass by. My sister's boyfriend made it across in his '95 Camaro just in time, a minute later and he would have had to detour all the way down to Palmdale Road (the 18) and up Oasis to Bear Valley.

The flooding caused a lot of trouble for some of our neighbours who live closer, covering their yards with mud a foot or more deep. I drove out the 2.5 ton military truck that we keep around for stuff like this, but didn't actually have to tow anyone out of the mud. I drove across the wash a few times on the 3rd, and down it to Marco, but I didn't get stuck (ran out of fuel, though!). Dad took his TD-6 dozer out and made Marco passable, and another neighbour took care of Duncan with his big frontloader.

You can see a short video of the flood here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi-ttyYan74