Could This Year Get Any More Strange
Living in the Bay Area since 1973, for the most part I thought of wildfires as a Southern California problem. In recent years it definitely became a serious Northern California problem too. But moving to the wet winters of Portland, I thought wildfires were in my past. Not so. With the hot, dry summer we've been having (much different from my childhood summers visiting my grandparents here), and the high winds of the last few days, the fires are nearby and on everyone's minds. And, even though my friends and neighbors and I are still safe, we can't escape the reminders of how near the fires are. This first photo shows how blue our skies can be. By contrast, here are the skies today. You can imagine the air quality! I'm definitely new to being at Mother Nature's mercy. (I somehow escaped the San Francisco area after 45 years without experiencing a major earthquake.) My heart goes out to those who the fires have hit and d...