it looks like fog.  it smells like a campfire.  the ash is everywhere.  even at the gas station i opened the gas cap of the family truckster.  ash.  not in the tank.  but on the area around the gas cap.  the place that is covered with its own little door.  ash got inside that area.

the smell hit me the moment i stepped outside.  thick acrid smoke.  like the gate of hell cracked open.  i took my time walking home from work.  slow.  i took several pictures of the sky, the orange ball of sun, the buildings fogged in smoke.  i texted these pics to friends & relayed my astonishment at the severity of the fires.  they are worse than i can remember of past wildfires.  

every year these climate events get more intense & destructive.  this is the world i give to my son.  i hope he, & all the children who inherit their place on this planet, can do a little better than us.  

my right eye is bloodshot from the smoke.  it was stupid of me to walk home when the air is so bad my weather app should have a skull & crossbones instead of a message that the air quality is extremely unhealthy.  

i think of those pop songs that tell us the world is on fire.  at the moment, my little postage stamp of place on this earth, is on fire.    sac is not in danger of burning.  but the flames are close by.  i fear that this is just the beginning. we have disrupted the climate.  we have not seen, by far, the worst that is still to come.