Got word yesterday of the passing of Mom’s brother, “Uncle Fred”. He was a good old cowboy, although I didn’t know him well.

My brother Skip wrote a nice farewell for him; family members can find it on Bob’s site.

Didn’t get a whole lot done last night. For some reason, was a bit sleepy, so took a nap after work. That reminds me of a joke an older fellow told me:

“So, Fred, how are you sleeping?”

“Well, I sleep OK at night. And I take a nap in the morning and evening. But in the afternoon, I just toss and turn!”

On Friday, we started getting some small breezes, which helped to clear the air a bit in some parts of this area. More breezes over the weekend also helped. The sun was actually visible as a yellow star, rather than a red-orange star. Still problems with the forest fires all around us, but it’s nice to have less smoke.

Went to the mountains Saturday for a few hours. At about 4000 feet elevation, the air was pretty good, with no detectable smoke odor. Visibility was 5-8 miles. It was a “Cousin’s Cabin Day” — we had a nice visit with various cousins that we don’t see very often.

Sunday was the usual. After the round of church meetings, went to my sister’s house for a nice dinner. On the way home, the temps were about 80 degrees, so opened up the sunroof on the new car (a 2007 Camry SE) which was quite pleasant.

Today’s temps are still warm, predicted for 95, but only 82 at noon, so may not reach the predicated high. But a small breeze is helping to cool things down; at night, we’re able to open the windows to take advantage of that (and to turn off the AC).

The smoke from the fires to the north and east are still causing problems here. Yesterday afternoon, the trip home showed about 1 mile visibility with temps around 106-108. Walking around this is like walking in hot fog. I’m getting a bit of throat irritation from the smoke, even through I am staying inside. I only go outside to get to the car and from the car to the house.

Today, the smoke is not as thick here at the office. But a look outside shows that the sunshine is not bright, it’s a dull brown. You can see it in the sun patterns on the ground. Visibility here is a couple of miles.

What is needed is a good breeze to blow all this smoke out of the valley. But that’s a Catch-22. More wind helps the fire spread faster. But all that smoke is stopping the air assets from fighting the fire. They need more wind to increase the visibility so they can fly water and retardant drops. But more wind means more erratic fire behavior.

What we really need is a good series of rain storms to damp down the fire and smoke. But that’s not in the forecast. The weather dweebs are predicting 105-100 today and tomorrow, with 95-100 starting Saturday. But not much wind to help blow out the smoke.

In the meantime, the area around Paradise CA is still threatened, with upwards of 10,000 people displaced. And the two other big fires in the Foresthill wilderness area (north-east of Sacramento) have merged together.

Doesn’t look good for us air-breathers.

Although it hasn’t happened yet, it is inevitable that you’ll see that headline soon.

The town of Paradise (CA, about 90 miles north of Sacramento CA) has given 14,000 people immediate evacuation notices today. On a map, that’s almost all of the east side of that town.

The Chico Enterprise Record (nearby newspaper in Chico CA) has a great map of the fire boundaries and evacuation areas here . There’s a great potential for damage if the fire gets into the ‘green’ (evacuation) areas.

And the weather is not helping. There is so much smoke that the fire retardant-dropping planes and water-dropping helicopters can’t fly.

Not good.

The fires around California continue to spew smoke all around the Sacramento Valley. The evening moon-set showed a very orange moon, and the sunrise was more “sun-red”. Visibility is still 5-10 miles around here.

And the fires up in Paradise (about 90 miles north of here) are getting very aggressive. Over 40 homes destroyed, and 7000 people evacuated. This is the same area that burned a couple of weeks ago.

The weather here is really hot, with some dry winds that aren’t helping. The official high yesterday in Sacramento was 107, but my car’s outside thermometer showed 111 on the way home yesterday. Today’s high is supposed to be 109, as is tomorrow. And our usual overnight cool down isn’t working now; overnight temps about 75. So the AC stays on overnight.

Of course, as we say around here, “It’s a dry heat.” Humidity is under 30%, although some weather stations are reporting higher humidity, but I think that is because of all the smoke in the air. So the heat could be worse. (I’ve experienced ‘worse’ – a trip to the Texas coast during the summer when the temps and humidity were both in the 90’s all night long.)

Supposed to get a bit cooler this weekend; just the upper 90’s. But all that heat is not helping those firefighters, many of whom have been working for 3-4 weeks straight.

Be careful out there!

(Today: 265)

Still lots of fires around California, along with a high pressure area sitting over the state. The result is winds from the north driving all that smoke into the valley. Air quality is pretty bad; the morning sun is really orange from all the smoke. And temps in the 100’s don’t make things any better.

Over 1700 fires in the state, but down to 330 active fires. Here’s a good map of most of the fires in the state: http://www.oes.ca.gov/WebPage/oeswebsite.nsf/InteractiveMap?readForm . Another map here http://www.fire.ca.gov/downloads/incidents/StatewideFireMap_070708_PM.pdf .

So it’s inside for me. Although I don’t have any allergies, I have noticed a bit of throat irritation from the smoke.

We drove back from Utah on Sunday. There is still a lot of smoke in the mountains, up to the 6000 foot level. You can’t see across Donner Lake from the freeway, normally a really pretty view of the lake and surrounding mountains. Visibility at the 4000 foot level was about 5 miles. At the Sacramento valley floor level, Sunday visibility in the evening was about 10 miles.

And it doesn’t appear there will be any relief soon. Temps are projected at 100-108 degrees (F) through the weekend. Because of the smoke layer, the overnight temps aren’t getting below about 75. We normally open the windows at night to get a bit of breeze and to save on AC costs. Not this week. We set the thermostat at 83 degrees at night, and keep the bedroom ceiling fan going.

This next month’s electric bill will be quite impressive.