It’s ugly out there. This is a picture I just took about fifteen minutes ago, as the sun was going down here in Antelope, which is roughly twenty miles northeast of Sacramento proper. (I’m near Roseville, for those familiar with Sactown geography.)
The air’s been nasty all day. Every night, we hope it’ll get better as it clears enough to see stars in the sky. But the daytimes are just nasty. I had to take my mom into Roseville this afternoon, and our car doesn’t have air conditioning. My lungs are still feeling it. Every time I step out into the murky, ugly air, it starts to hurt to breathe. And I’m not in any sensitive group.
I’m in Sacramento. I can only imagine how bad it is in my old stomping grounds up in Redding, where there’s fires burning all around. I have vague memories of 1987, and stepping outside to see a blood red sun hanging in the air. My dad still has pictures somewhere.
Never expected I’d be snapping my own in Sactown, though.
A thousand fires. My lovely state is burning. And more dry lightning predicted.
And it’s only June.
That’s the scariest part.
(More sunset pictures on Flicker here.)
Live from Redding… First clear day today in downtown redding since the whole thing began, fires burning all over the place. Shingle town is toasted, literally. I work in the hotel that was the command center in 1987… I remember being a kid then, fairgrounds full of firefighters as they are now.
A trick of the wind that sent fires over 299 further to the west and closed every route east from Humboldt County cleared our air. Price dearly paid for some I suppose.
It’ll be bad again in a few days, another storm is predicted. May the lord and the lady help us in our time of need.