Matt, my deepest sympathies. Ma~~ to all your family.

Pictures of the SoCal fires: [link]

A fire whirl? I've never heard of that before. It looks like a dust devil made of fire. Is that really what it is?

As horrifying as all the destruction is, that final photo is fascinating.

A fire whirl? I've never heard of that before. It looks like a dust devil made of fire. Is that really what it is?

A fire tornado, yes. Hubby talks about them. Lord, I hope he doesn't see anything like that on TV, he doesn't need flashbacks on top of everything else.

edit: Firemen are all pyromaniacs, too, just properly channelled. They adore fire. Hubby will talk of fire being alive, and not just because it's moving and changing shape. He says he has heard words in the fire noises, and his crew members agreed with him. The world is weird when you're in the middle of a wildfire, and he loved every minute that he wasn't hating what was happening.

A fire tornado, yes.

That's what I was afraid that was when I saw it. Extreme ::shudder::

Matt, my sympathies to you and your family.

I'm surprised to see one on the edge like that. Hubby always said they were the kind of thing you see towards the middle, where the weird elemental things happen. He says he saw a man made of fire walking among the trees once. Like I said, firemen get weird around fire, and odd things happen inside firestorms.

He'd still go back into it if he could.

Yargh-- first off, if a woman does a Brazilian because she wants to, that's one thing and go you, but because a guy wants her to?

The thing that surprises me is that its such a given to so many people I know younger than 30 or so. Even when they're NGA.

Part of me is all "AGGGH! Porn-generated self mutilation!!!!" part of me is "Eh, styles change, cultures shift around. It's not like someone at Hustler invented the denuded pubes ten years ago."

He says he has heard words in the fire noises, and his crew members agreed with him.

The way my cousin describes it is that if you listen to a campfire there are all these pops and hisses. When its ten thousand times larger and you're in the middle of it it sounds like shouts and screams. When we had our house fire that's why the guys kept running up to us and asking if everyone was out - they each needed comfirmation because they were hearing people. It's also why my cousin was pulled off the truck when his chief found out who's house it was - the last thing anyone needs is a firefighter letting go of the hose and running toward the voice of the cousin who dressed up as Batman to his Robin.

Matt and Beverly - all my sympathies.

Skipping 400 posts (which I'll try to read tomorrow! I swear!) to be really really selfish:

Umm, guys, can I ask a favor?

There's a certain digital released only album I want to get. The problem is that it's only available via iTunes or Amazon digital music store, and being an Israeli, I can't buy there (iTunes doesn't accept Israeli credit cards, Amazon digital music store is for U.S. people only).

Can one of you maybe buy it for me, and I'll PayPal the money back to him/her?

Alternatively, if anyone of you knows an alternative way for me to directly purchase this sort of thing without bothering you or buying an Amazon gift card from eBay, please, do let me know.

(Edit: profile addy is good)

Thanks!

Preferences change. I'm a clipper now, in my late 40s, unlike ever before in my life. Can't even really say why. But the first time a man I was with proclaimed his shavenitude as a 'gift' to womenme, I was really put off. It seemed so self-conscious, in an arrogant way and didn't even feel good. I much prefer the 'whatever makes you happy' approach.