Down in Orange County, we're not in danger but squeezed in between all these fires and the ash and smoke is pretty bad. It got really nasty Saturday night -- it was SO smokey I thought another fire might have been set in the Anaheim Hills. I think it was the Camp Pendleton fire blowing smoke, though. A long way away, but the Santa Ana winds were blowing from the south at about 35 mph.

All day Saturday was like perpetual dawn -- red sun and low light. Yesterday I had the house closed up and the air was still pretty bad inside. Today, the air inside is okay and the winds have died down enough that the ash isn't falling like snow anymore. You can smell the fires outdoors, but the smoke is more like a haze. I have an inch of ash in my back yard.

My sinus are going haywire and my throat hurts awful, but I'm still not sure if it's the big dose of ash I got on Friday and Saturday, or a little cold. In the fish pond, my fish are gasping for air and there's not much I can do except change some water each day and try and keep the filter unclogged enough to keep their waterfall (source of air) going.

Fortunately, I should be in no danger here. It seems like it's just around the corner, though! We really need rain, but it doesn't look like we are going to get it, and the firefighters must be exhausted by now. CA fighters often go other places -- I now some offers of help have been made from out of state, but I don't think any other help has made it yet.