Smoke Gets In MY Eyes

Heading South from Danville

The terrible fire in Paradise, CA, 239 MILES from my house, is causing air quality problems as far south as Santa Clara Valley. The way the air flow goes leads it straight to the Santa Clara Valley where it sits and concentrates as more smoke flows in. We won't see any relief for at least a week. The AIR quality if soooo bad (over 200 on the particle index) that schools and businesses are closing and people are advised to stay inside with windows and door closed. The authorities advise blowing in filtered air. This is a bad situation. For pets, the authorities are advising keeping them inside as much as possible.

For some reason, Mommy's iPhone made the sky in all of her photos a lot brighter than the sky really is. It is brown outside. Brown and smoky. Dense like a fog. The scenery you see in these pictures is better than what Mommy saw when she took the pix. The hills were MORE obscured with clear fingers of smoke around the trees. She is a little dismayed that she could NOT capture how bad it really is.

The hills on the right are a football field away

Mommy is particularly concerned because she has been dealing with congestion from an earlier cold and then her allergies kicked in (before the cold was go. She is allergic mostly to grasses and when a big WIND blew in, the allergies kicked up. Two weeks ago, the smoke came in and her sensitivity to smoke added to her discomfort.

You should be looking at the southern tip of the San Francisco Bay

This is the normal view of the Bay.

You should be seeing the skyline of San Jose from here

There has been no real sunlight all week. It gray like it is when the fog rolls in. But instead of smelling fresh and clean, it smells a little DIRTY - Mommy says like an ashtray. I have never been around ashtrays so I don't know what she means.

The sunlight is trying to breakthrough but so far no luck. The sunrise and sunset has been amazing all week with Ol' Sol looking like a bright tangerine on the horizon. I feel for the people closer to the fire. They must be really miserable. If this is how bad the air is 239 miles away, how bad it must be at GROUND ZERO?!

The bright sunlight is an illusion. It was like
a foggy day with little to no sun. You should see
the foothills here as this is less than a mile from them

I am spending the time indoors wisely. I am hunkered down in my Star Trek bed and taking it easy. Making the BEST of a bad situation, I call it.

Me, hunkering down