Old Vines and Fences

Well pruned vines, a country road and a fence with character all add up to a fairly traditional Wine Country view. It's nice to see the green grass coming back between the rows of vines and in the hills around us.

Our Thursday drive through Fountaingrove , past the old Hilton Hotel site , the trailer park known, ironically, as it turns out as Journey's End, and next to Coffey Park to see Kathy.  We are finally feeling recovered enough to take this drive without averting our eyes from the ruins, but the people whose houses burned are already encountering the first delays to their recovery. 

The Army Corps of Engineers agreed to oversee the cleanup of the debris from all the burned houses, which cannot be rebuilt until it is done, but the companies that have been contracted are already calling foul on each other, necessitating delays and work stoppages. There were noticeably fewer dump trucks on the road today as OilMan and I tried to understand why this is happening.

It really makes no sense but it seems that one of the three companies (headquartered in Florida) has reported another one (headquartered in some other state) of not keeping to their deadline. Of course this means all work must stop while somebody looks into it....

I predict that a lot of people will leave town because they can't face to prospect of all the delays and hassles of rebuilding but can't find anything to buy in the tight housing market here. Our friends whose house burned down are due in ten minutes for dinner, so we'll find out what they have decided to do...