Jack of Harts

Car turned left in front of me last night. My girl did her job. She caved that car in and didn’t even bend her main structure. She protected me from everything other than some bumps and scrapes. She’s a champ and I want her back.

If you’ve been paying any attention at all to the news, you’ve heard about the fires in Los Angeles County by now. Thanks to the wonders of Internet friendships, my Kevin Bacon is down to one friend between me and someone who’s lost a home over there, and I have nothing but compassion for everyone who is losing everything they’ve built to this inferno.

But we literally knew this would happen and we said it would happen if the government didn’t start performing proper land management in the area. They didn’t clear the dead brush that would fuel a fire during the off season. They actually stopped people from clearing the dead brush on their own property if reports are accurate. They haven’t built new reservoirs to hold water to fight the fires since before I could walk. They throw away one of the greatest sources of water in the world, the snowmelt off the Rocky Mountains, rather than let it flow into the lowlands to supply farms and fire fighting systems. The fire hydrants are running out of water, or already have run out, and they knew it was a problem because it happened mere months ago. They cut 17 million dollars in funding from the Fire Department and the new fire chief made DEI her primary focus with what funding she had left.

Government policies enforced by the administrations in California and the White House working together did the exact things you would do if you wanted to make this fire season worse. I hope the people of Los Angeles remember this when it comes time to elect their representative in the next two and four years. This disaster is the result of government action. Just like the fire in Hawaii was a very few short years ago. The conditions for that were also set up by government actions. By not clearing the dead brush. By not replacing the electric system with something that wouldn’t spark when it got jiggled by the winds in fire season.

I don’t want anybody going through anything like this. I want all of us to have representatives who take the actions it takes to make life BETTER for all of us. I want representatives who plan and take actions to make Acts of God like this LESS dangerous, not MORE dangerous. We all deserve that, and I want all of us to get that. But right now, a great many of us do not have that, and people are dying because of it.

I am filled with sorrow and compassion for everyone stuck and trapped in this situation. All the people seeing their lives and homes torn apart. You don’t deserve this. And I wish you had representatives that would have fought to make it less likely.

I have run or helped run a half dozen people through new playing experiences in the last month. At KSAGG last month and at Games & More this month. My Pryde Rock Demo Kit helps me easily show people how to play BattleTech Alpha Strike and BattleTech Encounters. And with some prep time and willingness to lug around the big kit, I can also bring a BattleTech Grinder on wheels. My demos are really very basic. Just running people through the active experience of playing the game. No rules book. Just a quick example of how to go through the turns, what to roll dice for, how to record damage or other effects, and finishing a quick game. I love giving a new player a good new experience at playing a new-to-them game. And I love watching their eyes open up with the realization of what each thing does. Of the fun they could have playing the game. It’s why we play games after all. For the fun.