Morning Haze

Even my three-year-old knew something was unusual about the sky this morning. She pointed to the rising sun and asked me why it looked so strange. Strange indeed, it looked more like a Harvest Moon, so dim you could stare straight at it. The sky was all hazy and the light that filtered through was an eerie, diffuse orange. The sunset the night before had had a similar quality -- spectacular but wierd. I'm embarrassed to admit that I had to think about the answer for a little while. What was wrong with the sky? And then I remembered the fire. Actually two fires are shrouding Bay Area skies: The Moonlight Fire in Plumas County and the Lick Fire in Henry Coe State Park in the South Bay, both approaching 20,000 acres in size. As I made my morning joe, the radio filled us in: Unhealthy air was blanketing much of the Central Valley; firefighters were struggling to contain both fires; it would be another scorcher across most inland areas. Another day in California.