Smoke has contaminated the beauty we take for granted. We now have the hazy night with its orange moon, and the hazy day with its orange sun. Let’s check our smoke levels. They are in the black zone and the map says there is an unconfirmed fire near us.

Since we are not deemed worthy of a point, I can’t tell if the new fire is north of us, west of us, slightly east, or atop… I’ll have to get scientific: Latitude and Longitude for Mount Shasta, CA is 41.32N -122.33W. Mount Eddy, which is almost right across the street from us, is 41.32 N, -122.478W. Dunsmuir, the nearest town South of us, is 41.208,-122.272. McCloud, the nearest town East, is 41.2521, -122.133.

And the FIRE is……41.421N-122.246W and moving, no doubt. Therefore, the fire must be a little bit east of us with winds out of the South. Maybe I should look out the window. Nope, no fire–only smoke.

I went on Google Earth, typed in the coordinates and saw that the area that is supposedly on fire is on the northeast slope of Mount Shasta, but it looks like mostly rock, so it can’t burn forever.

It’s now late afternoon and the unconfirmed ‘Mount Shasta’ fire has been removed from the map. Smoke is still our main feature, though, and I don’t know where it’s coming from. Between us and the coast, as the crow flies, the earth is on fire. That’s all I know.

Laura signing off.