Think fast: What would you take?


I live in beautiful Portland, Oregon.
Pandemics, riots, rain, no rain, economic turmoil, comets...
Now we have devastating fires. 
One of my audio buddies is waiting in an evacuation center, awaiting the horrible news that he's lost his home. A couple others are at level 2 ready to abandon their homes. These guys are the best audiophile guys you could ever hope to have around. You probably know them.
With light rain in the forecast (Monday), I feel fairly safe.
But, I have collected one small suit case, just in case. My car will be loaded with camping gear. A photo album. Maybe a friend or 2.
Of the items in my listening room, I know I can't take any equipment. Maybe a couple Lps? No, I could replace those. 
So, I ask you: What would you take?
Hopefully, you'll never be in such a situation.
oregon
you must be new, who said 200k dead due to fires ?

make the leap, it aint that hard
"Who , under the circumstances described , thinks of saving a piece of his audio system is a fool."


You must be new here. People around this place are willing to go to (virtual, thankfully) war for a fuse, or a piece of wire.
Who , under the circumstances described , thinks of saving a piece of his audio system is a fool .
If only California, Oregon, and Washington had taken the advice of the wise one and raked the forest floors, over half of which is federally managed. He no doubt would love to see the tapes Putin has on him burning ;-) .
Daddog, glad you are safe. To all my fellow Oregonians, I hope we all make it through, and that the rains come a day early. I try to remind myself that apart from climate change etc, we have more forest fires out west because we are still blessed to have more forests. Most of the country can’t say that anymore. 5 billion trees here before it started. After the million acres in flames we will have fewer. Be safe. 
iPhone all chargers and AirPods.  iPad Pro.  MacBook Air.  Some clothes.  Travel kit.  Comfortable shoes.   God bless
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In Portland here. All my documents are in order. 5 containers of 5 gallons water each. Cash. Clothes. Toiletries. The cat. My wedding album. My mother’s wedding photo. A couple of irreplaceable Paintings. Laptops. Maybe I would take my tricked out Thorens TD-124, but even at 50 years old, it’s replaceable. A few of my dad’s lps, because even if the music is replaceable, the sentiment isn’t. We already took all the fotos of the house. We will go in two vehicles if need be, and leave the other two for the flames. 
One of the most underrated harms you face is the breathing of those toxic ashes. The buildup in your lungs can reach toxic levels in short order, depending on exposure levels. Don't take anything for granted and have you and your family evaluated asap.

All the best,
Nonoise
All political bs aside this is some very serious stuff not to be taken lightly.
I wish you guys in the danger zones all the best luck in the world.
Do whatever it takes to be safe!
Thank you Tomic601.  I feel very fortunate.  We do not know what started the fire, only that we had been having wicked east winds (45mph+ and hot and dry) for a couple of days.  The canyon behind our property was being logged but I don't believe the loggers had been there for days, at least I did not hear any saws running earlier.  

There are not even any residences nearby.  But I could guess; dry lighting.  Like in California where I read that they had 15,000 strikes in the last month (or something, assuming I got my facts right).  It's nutty.
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Ah, just been notified that my post on the murderer, Kyle Rittenhouse was taken down. I shouldn't have called that militia guy a fat *ss, I guess. 

what possible intellectual discourse could there be relative to Qanon ? other than the clinical diagnosis of insanity ?
(Kids, kids, now come on. This isn’t a sandbox or Facebook. This is a classy group of audiophiles engaging in intellectual discourse)

:)

And there is more  than the playground to be thinking about now....


The fires move much faster than you can so please get to a safer place. Nothing can replace your life and the lives of your loved ones. I have an uncle who was a firefighter and he said to see the flames traveling faster overhead than you can run or drive was frightening. Once that happens, you're severely limited in the directions you can go.

All the best,
Nonoise
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I would like to make a couple of non-political points that Oregon and Millercarbon might find interesting. 

The Chehalem Mountain - Bald Peak fire started a few feet behind my property.  My wife and a neighbor called it in at the same time (Tuesday, 5:19pm).  One of the first things that happens is the fire department cuts power to the area so they don't have to deal with live downed power lines. No power, no well, so no water.  You cant fight the fire with anything in rural areas.  So remaining makes little sense.

The wind was whipping and the smoke was like pea soup.  We have taken care to keep vegetation and trees away from our home so flames were not the concern - one shift in the wind and you are a goner from smoke inhalation.  That's why we left.  I locked-up my expensive and beloved listening room and got outta there.  Didn't grab anything.  It didn't seem to make sense.  I felt the gear was safest were it was.  Anyway, we just  got cleared to return home.  All is well but still no power (or water) yet. 
Take your pick for top idiotic ideas.

Nuking a hurricane or injecting bleach.

I mean seriously .....,.
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@snilf much wisdom in your post and on your mountaintop

yes, we are trapped in the Field of Blackbirds world....only the self aware can step outside it.... my very best to you. May you stay safe up there in the wizzened oaks. IF you get down South to Carlsbad or North to Seattle, stop by for a glass and some tunes.

Jim
and that is the jist, the deplorables MUST pool together, hence the desire for us to honor an insane right to even discuss idiocy like Qanon....
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to the OP question...the small cherished things that are not already digital in the cloud....handed down trinkets from my parents ( gone ), pawprint of the ancient Labrador ( over the bridge ) and IF i was in Seattle my parents Mac tube gear, an old double I restocked, a hardy and a bamboo rod.....

wishing you and your friends grace, peace and health

as the Eagles sang “ every form of refuge has it’s price “

Excellent @nonoise.

John Lennon: "Just give me some truth, all I want is the truth."

The sky here in Southern Washington State remains amber. I've always wondered what Earth would look like if a very large asteroid made it through the atmosphere. We could be the new dinosaurs.

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So many good people in our audio community. Thank you for your encouragement and excellent ideas.
 As I stated earlier, one dear friend lost everything . 2 others are at level 2. Local news says Portland has the worst air quality in the world ( they like drama). It certainly looks that way.
 Funny note- I was at a friends house yesterday helping him with audiophile issues and my neighbor called to tattle -tale on my wife."She's outside in the yard with no mask, this smoke is bad for her lungs!" It's nice to have such neighbors. 
 Luckily, the winds have died down. Forecast is for some rain on Monday and Tuesday.
 Some folks suffer earthquakes, floods, hurricanes... We are all in this together.
 Enjoy a good tune for me and Imagine.
 
"As for the bomb proof hood, it was a locking mechanism that made it impossible for anyone to install a bomb to the motor from above, with the hood open."

The plot thickens.
MC
You are so far out to lunch on my political leaning it is not even funny.

I WAS a staunch Republican. Note was.

The present incumbent that is wasting time and space in the White House and his gang of cronies have absolutely NOTHING to do with Republican policy or path any longer.

My main political aim right now is to rid this country of the cancer that has struck at its core with the initials of DT.

And for all the so called Republican members who have sold their souls to hang on his shirt tails and abandon their beliefs, well November 3rd will be the day of reckoning.
A shame we will have to endure at least 4 years of Biden/Harris but well worth it to be rid of that inept meat puppet.

They had their chance in February to make amends but no they just gave him a free pass to do whatever he likes.

Time is up.
On the right we say freedom of expression, free speech, etc because we all assume each and every one of us is an individual and free to pursue their own individual interests and ideas- and free to express them as well. Its only on the intolerant left where ideology rules and requires total agreement that virtue signaling double-speak like agree to disagree is used.



People make this claim all the time. Often what is meant is you are free to agree with me but not otherwise.

A local very conservative talk show host was lamenting just yesterday that conservatives claim this philosophy but of late in particular it’s too often a false claim.

An example would be the booing of the NFL players in KC the other night during their moment of solidarity.

People of all persuasions who want to be taken seriously need to walk the walk not just talk the talk.

Agree to disagree is the normal state of affairs on the right. Its only the intolerant left that feels the need to say this. On the right we say freedom of expression, free speech, etc because we all assume each and every one of us is an individual and free to pursue their own individual interests and ideas- and free to express them as well. Its only on the intolerant left where ideology rules and requires total agreement that virtue signaling double-speak like agree to disagree is used.
Interesting that all sides have a version of the boogie man.........a word of advice even though many of you are too enlightened to be given any........”THEY” is a dangerous word used by dangerous people who want to denigrate large swaths of a population. Pick your historical monster- each used this word effectively. 
I am on a roll.......so one more.......getting in the last word is an invitation to play ping pong. 
Feel free to let loose your Kraken. I am busy worrying about my kid in Oregon. See some of you on another thread. Peace
We all know the correct answer. Family, pets, documents, photos. Having lived through 3 hurricane evacuations, I would say there are some material things that will help you rebuild your life sooner. Amp #1. Speakers #2 if you love them. Everything else take pictures of for insurance and let go and move on. Godspeed to you.
Those of you with guns and hoses...  Keep that hose going until the utilities stop working. Which will happen. Its a FOREST FIRE, schiit tends to not work. And then, you can get your guns out and try to shoot out the flames. GENIUS. MC, some folks might think you are a truly "special" human being. Some, might argue, the reason why your country is so messed up, is because of people who think such as you.
. No question I would take my guns and amo so I could Rittenhous any rioters I came across on the way.
My vote for most STUPID statement in this thread yet!!

Kyle Rittenhouse was attacked, chased, knocked to the ground and beaten by rioters, some of them armed. From on the ground still under attack he finally shot in self defense, and certainly in fear for his life, only the most dangerous and determined of his attackers.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOpW9lEEsDo

To say say you would "Rittenhouse any rioters" is saying you would defend yourself if attacked. To call defending yourself stupid, is beyond stupid. It is almost beyond belief. But the nonsense some people on this thread are willing to believe is truly off the charts and so I guess at this point to be expected. 

As Orwell said, "To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle." Never more so than with some of the people on this thread.
Contexts are always plural like radiating circles around any event....More larger the circle we dare to contemplate, the less vindicative we are....

Scapegoating is childish....

«Contexts are like suits, most choose the only one who fit them»-Groucho Marx

« i begin to understand when i stop explaining»- Harpo Marx
grannyring
We don’t seem to understand each other.
I think we’re understanding each other quite well, actually. And none of the vitriol and wordy rationalizations have anything to do with the OP.
First, to the OP: you have our sympathies, no matter what our politics may be. We all hope you, and your fellow Oregonians, make it through this terrible year alive and intact.

I live on the Central Coast of California, on a mountaintop in a grove of huge, old oaks. If a firestorm blew through here and set the trees aflame, wetting the yard and roof would be pathetically ineffectual.

And we're currently surrounded by fires; the air rains ash, smells of smoke, and has done so for weeks now. We've had two hot spells with temps reaching 120! This, in a gentle climate with Sept temps averaging in the 80s. But I'm safe...at the moment. Twice before in my life in California--once in the south, once in the north--I've been evacuated because of fires. They're not a new phenomenon. But this intensity is new. 120 degrees blows away all previous records. 

As for the political rants.... I'll just say this. I lived through the "break-up" (an utterly inadequate expression here) of the former Yugoslavia, with Croats and Serbs murdering one another. Any reader of history knows these things happen repeatedly among human beings. Each eruption has its particular villains and victims. What's maybe worth pointing out is what brings out such inclinations to violence. The occasion in this thread was the tragic report of a common threat: fire. The occasion in our culture at the moment is a complex of common threats: a pandemic that kills more people every week than died on 9/11; raw race relations that have roots in slavery, Jim Crow--and, yes, the experience of crime in poverty-blighted urban environments. Oh, yes: and fires! And floods, too. One half expects locusts to be next (although there's the "murder hornets" to worry about, and I read only yesterday about swarms of killer mosquitoes).

Crises bring out the best and the worst in people. It's a commonplace to say that you don't know if you'll be a hero or a coward until you're tested--which is why reading about historical repetitions of crisis isn't the same as living through one. We're now living through several crises at the same time. Let's try to rise to the occasion: to help each other, not fear each other. Guns are useless against fires, plagues, floods. They're only useful against other people with guns. And then only until the other guy shoots first. 

Let's try a constructive, positive response. Put your guns down and help your neighbor load his car for evacuation. Wear the mask--not for your own sake, but just in case you may be infected and not know it, so you don't spread disease. And please, as the Brits said in WWII: try to stay calm and carry on.
a policeman’s job is only easy in a police state

Being a urban police officer is a very tough job.  Our society assigns them the task of dealing with people and issues that most people don't even want to acknowledge.  Things like homelessness, drug abuse, domestic violence, a broken education system, ineffective immigration policy and too easy access to guns are everyday encounters for urban police men and women.  The emotional toll and resulting psychic damage are well documented.  Police have higher rates of divorce, alcoholism/drug abuse and suicide than other comparable demographic groups.  Additionally, since only another cop can understand what they deal with, many police officers become quite insulated from the general population.  Add to that there is the perception that their work is not sufficiently appreciated by society.  The people whom they police hate them and the population they police for look down upon them.  Basically, being a cop sucks.  And to top it off, after twenty years on the job you end up a virulent racist.  So the question becomes, is the pension and medical benefits worth it?

I love western movies.  To me they are the symbolize so much of the American mythology.  One of the frequent themes in westerns is that the townspeople want law and order.  The shop keepers don't want the cowboys coming in and shooting up the town.  So they hire a tough lawman and he straightens the town out.  But eventually the town begins to see the sheriff as a tyrant and they turn against him.

Right now in our country large segments of the populace are re-examining how they view the police.  The nation wants law and order, but they don't want the police simply to be the best armed gang of thugs.  Currently the police with their warrior training and surplus military equipment act like an occupying army in some neighborhoods.  People are asking if this is right.  Today it's happening in that neighborhood, but tomorrow it could happen in yours.

Sorry to go so far off topic, but I just thought Anotherbob's truth needed some context.
Understanding someone requires being open minded. I'd like to leave it at that but here, on this thread, we have an openly racist member and one who's advocating following in the footsteps of a double murderer and yet you have issues with me. I find that astonishing.

All the best,
Nonoise
We don’t seem to understand each other. I don’t post political stuff, you do quite often of late.  Most of it is name calling. I will leave it at that. This site has gone to the dogs. Best to just opt out.