Scott Gruby's Blog

While I’m quite happy that the fires haven’t affected us (except for the smoke and particulates in the air), it saddens me to see the great loss that so many people have suffered. We returned to our house on Wednesday as the fire threat lessoned and my parents’ 2 bedroom condo is a bit small for 4 adults, a baby, and a dog.

I decided that since we have been and are so fortunate, that I would volunteer. On Wednesday, I went down to Qualcomm Stadium to volunteer. There were so many volunteers, it almost seemed like chaos. I checked in and then waited around. When the guy organizing teams took my name, I said that I had some medical experience (I’m an EMT-B) as I saw other teams being sent out to move stuff to/from people’s cars in the 80+ degree heat. He sent me to the medical volunteer station (which I should have seen first) and they sent me upstairs to the club level where they had the medical facility. So, I checked in and helped out checking people in before they could be seen. As the day continued, my job turned into the job of bouncer. I was supposed to make sure that people didn’t storm the door, were checked in before going inside, and had to keep the media and unnecessary people out. I met some nice people and it was great to see so many people of all different skill sets volunteering their time. Their were some many volunteers that people were being turned away. At the end of the day, I was asked to do data entry into an Excel spreadsheet. This started me thinking that there must be a better way to handle all the information. After talking with the doctor that set it up, I’m convinced that with some assistance from some of the doctors there, I can develop and a deployable, self contained computer/network that could handle supply needs, patient checkin, records, patient checkout, etc.

In any case, we’re all doing fine and paraphrasing the rabbi on Yom Kippur, I wish all those affected by the fires an easy recovery.

Sunday afternoon while my wife and I were running errands, we noticed smoke to the north and my wife found out there was a fire. Later that evening, I walked into the garage and smelled the fires; that’s when I knew things weren’t good. We were glued to the TV watching what was happening. Monday morning, I decided it was a wise idea for us to goto my parents’ place on the coast, so we packed up and left.

It’s now Tuesday morning and we just got back from picking up more stuff from our house. While the air was a bit clearer at our house (the winds are pushing the ash and smoke west), for the time being, we’re going to stay put in La Jolla as it is farther away from the fires. We’re all safe and sound, but I’m a little on edge as everyone can imagine.

I’ve been following KBPS’s Twitter feed as well as the Google map showing everything.

I received email from the alumni office of my alma mater (Harvey Mudd College). The message starts out: “I received your name from the Office of Alumni Relations as someone who might be able to attend our Social Business Luncheon…” and then goes on to say “The purpose of the evening of course is to learn the art of dining, etiquette…”.

Are they trying to tell me something? Are my dining habits all that ape like? Maybe my son is rubbing off on me as he gets his food all over his face (he just started eating solid foods).

My wife and I signed up for the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s recall newsletter. I thought this was a good idea to see which of our son’s toys we need to inspect. Little did I know that we’d get email just about everyday with a few more recalls. These recalls don’t make headlines, but they make you go “hmmmm” when there are so many. Today’s email had 4 products in it, all made in China, 3 for violation of Lead Paint Standard. China needs to get on the ball or our government could ban imports of certain products.