I was out with my wife for a few hours this afternoon, here in south Orange county. There wasn't that much smoke visible in the distance, despite having several fires going further north of us. Can't smell any smoke in the air. However, I had to run another errand just now around 6pm and after driving for ten minutes, I realized that I could "feel" the pollution in the air in my chest. Must be all that microscopic particulate stuff wafting down this way.

Well, I may actually break out the N95 mask soon, even to wear inside the house (I have a history of asthma). After the horrible wildfires in SoCal last fall and just two N95 masks on hand to protect me through a week of heavy smoke and air pollution in my area, I stocked up on masks after that (thanks Redflare!).

Now that the sun has gone down and it's dark again, seeing these homes burn on TV--many of them rather large homes--is like watching a blast furnace running. So much flame. Wow, this fire just leap frogged through the Southland today and left a lot of people without homes who had no reason to think that they were in any dangers just this morning.