• Various and Sundry Things Vol 6

As the Holy Fire has been raging to the north of us, displacing many with evacuations, there were a couple of recent fires in Wildomar. Thankfully they were both put out before they had a chance to spread.

Friday, August 10th there was a fire near Giant RV.
Mayor Ben Benoit arrived on the scene and took some pictures.

Saturday morning (August 11th) there was a fire that destroyed a double-wide, displacing three people, while no one was injured. This was near the Bundy Canyon Christian School and was fully contained before 10am.

Photo courtesy of Wildomar City Councilmember Bridgette Moore.

While out looking in the area of the Giant RV fire, I happened upon some graffiti that has been on a cell tower for many months. Have you seen this from the freeway? 

This has been visible most of the year. How do we get this removed?
Calling it in hasn't helped so far.

As long as I was out driving around I went to check if Wildomar's famous chimney still had its tag. Yes and no... it seems that the previous tag was tagged over again. Looks like those spray can hooligans are in a virtual danse macabre of some type. I hope they both lose, or win... whichever is worse. 

If you've ever wondered what the other side of this chimney looks like, now you know.
For the uninitiated, this is directly to the south of the Elks Lodge on Mission Trail.

Right across the street, there was another impressive tag. I wonder if it'll remain up into 2019?

Do we really want all the traffic that uses Mission Trail to see this on a daily basis?

On the way from the Giant RV area to Mission Trail, I happened upon the intersection of Grove and Cherry. 

There I found an interesting sign for trails. I saw the sign, but am not sure where the trail is or leads to. Perhaps it's just the street? Since it's in District 3, and I'm running for city council in this district, I'd better get familiar with such things post haste. ☺ 

A hearty thanks to Ronnie's Jewelers for "adopting" the trail.
 Still, I wonder what such an "adoption" entails?

On the other side of town, I saw a new palm tree at Wildomar Square that had succumbed to all that high heat we've been having. I've seen plenty of dead trees in my lifetime, but never one that bent over like it was just punched in the stomach. 

If I had been out in that 110+ degree weather every day, I'd be in far worse shape than that.

UPDATE: After my lovely wife Grace read the blog, she reminded me that she taken a (better) photo the day before. It looks like one of those wacky waving inflatable tube guys after someone has unplugged it.

While driving over the freeway, I couldn't help but see the new landscaping (cough) that Wildomar Square is sporting these days. We all know that the tumbleweed is Wildomar's official flower and all, but had no idea that the new center would be displaying them so prominently.

First, too few parking spaces, now tumbleweeds adorning Wildomar Square.
What will they think of next?

I headed over to the emerging Clinton Keith Village (the corner of Clinton Keith and soon-to-be Wildomar Trail) to check out their construction progress. They got a lot of the grading done and are well on their way to getting that corner ready for retail.

A look from about 60 feet in the air.

Funny thing is, last November I was talking to a guy on the site that presented himself as some type of super, and he had been telling me that he was expecting buildings to be up by August 2018. Hmmm... missed it by that much.

Link to 2017 blog about Clinton Keith Village

This shot was from just north of the project.

I'm not an electrician, and I've never played one on the radio, but isn't a missing meter like that (indicated by the red arrow below), on the dangerous side of things? This was across from Clinton Keith Village (to the west). Maybe it isn't live... I wasn't interested in testing it one way or the other. 

Any thoughts on the matter?

While in the area I drove through Hartford Park. 

What a nice neighborhood! 
I happened to see a sprinkler of theirs malfunctioning, so I thought I'd toss that in here in hopes that someone in their HOA will see it.

It was a tad early, and a bit out of sight.

UPDATE: The next day I got an email from one of the homeowners there, thanking me for posting this photo. They found the sprinkler in question and reported it to the landscapers that take care of that neighborhood's green spaces.

While out flying my drone I went over to Marna O'Brien Park to practice some maneuvers. The good news is that I noticed the sign that touts the remaining 4 park events of 2018.

They all look like fun, and I recommend that you try to attend at least one of them... if not all four. ☺

I'm looking forward to the Mariachi Night. This will be new for the city.

The bad news, or at least the "what the H was that" news, was that either I was being paranoid (yeah — NO!), or there were some unsavory characters that were spending an inordinate amount of time in the bathroom... "washroom" to the Canadians out there.

Upon arrival at the park, I made use of the facilities and heard what could be described as snoring coming from the far stall (if not snoring, then some other oddball sound... but I prefer we stick with "snoring"). 

As I exited, another guy went in, and about 10 minutes later a third guy went it. A couple of moments later they all came out and went over to a car. (maybe one of them lost their play book for the big game or something, and the others were helping him look for it before the coach found out)

A screen capture from my drone.

Yes, I'm sure it's normal activity for skeevy looking twenty-somethings to do on a Sunday morning around 10:00am, bro'ing down in a park lavatory, but I guess I'm just from a different generation since I don't get it.

If I didn't know better, I'd almost swear that some type of transaction had happened in there while I was wringing out the last bit of juice from my drone's battery. 

Which reminds me... If you live in Windsong Valley and would like to be part of a revitalized Neighborhood Watch program, please join the new FaceBook group. We're hoping to have the first meeting in early September. We're just waiting for Officer Baca to put us on her calendar.

You don't have to be part of FaceBook to be part of Neighborhood Watch, but it just makes communicating with each other much easier. 

This group is primarily for Windsong Valley residents. It's not a general group that people from all over are encouraged to join. Most areas in town have similar pages that are geared towards their neighborhood too.

Last on the list of things I noticed while out this morning includes the first sighting of a campaign sign for the November election. 

Wildomar city council hopeful, Joseph Morabito, hung his first sign (sorry about speaking in the third person, it seems to be a habit now). This was at the corner of Palomar and Gruwell. The Little League sign is new, but it seems as if Dr. Norman Quintero didn't get the news that he finished a distant third, with only 8.25% of the vote, back in June.

Speaking of campaign signs, while walking on Clinton Keith, these were just off the road. Woody was even further behind Dr. Norman with only 4.83% of the vote. Come on man, clean up your mess.

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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
– Arthur Schopenhauer 

Wildomar Rap prefers to skip the needless rigmarole of stages one and two and accept reality at first blush, self-evident or otherwise.

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