Why is it that everybody’s got a secret these days? Everybody from Deepak Chopra (“The Book of Secrets”) to your average, run-of-the-mill Internet Marketer is hauling around one or more secrets on his back. Maybe it all just stems from Childhood. When I was a kid, the quickest way to taunt your playmate and make yourself important was to chant in his face Na Na-na Na Na, I know somethin’ you don’t know…I know somethin’ you don’t know…..

Who would have imagined that we’d still be doing that as adults, though? Aren’t humans silly sometimes!

In keeping, therefore, with silliness and childhood tradition, I too have a secret. (Drumroll) All you have to do is email and ask me for a SendOutCard and I’ll write the secret inside. Next the Great Printer in Salt Lake City will make a card for you, put it in an envelope, then stamp and mail it to your address–all this for $1.33 out of my pocket. A mere pittance where secrets are concerned, don’t you think?

Moving on, though…it’s no secret that we’re still suffering in Northern Cal. Small-particle pollution is a serious concern for those not directly in the path of any incoming blazes. These teeny-tiny specks worm their way past all defenses, invade the blood stream and reek havoc on the immune system. Sad to say, our air is killing us–but we can’t complain.

Approximately 19,000 men and women are fighting more than 1,100 separate California wildfires. In addition to unexpected wind driven blazes, firefighters are beset by massive doses of toxic blood-stream particles, eye burning smoke, lung searing heat and poison oak(some of it airborne). They are running around in filthy clothes with at least 50 lbs of equipment strapped to their backs, getting very little sleep/rest and eating lousy meals. How much do they get paid, I wonder?

It must be an abysmal amount, because no one will say. (It’s a secret.) I have been combing the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, clicking on almost every link imaginable. I even found out how to get Smokey Bear to come to my child’s school, but money is definitely a taboo subject. For salary info, you must call your local Cal fire Office.

Happy to say, it is not a secret in British Columbia: The annual salary for forest firefighters ranges from $20,000 to $30.000 (that’s probably Canadian money), plus competition is fierce for the one thousand seasonal positions available on the front lines–or so I read.

I think the smoke is effecting my brain. Back to the ongoing California fires: What is the current statewide overview?

Is there any hope weather-wise? Not much is the answer, as dry thunderstorms and high winds are predicted. Please be wrong. Please. Please. After all, who is more wrong more times than the weather man/woman/person?

Good news! Now that our Governor has called in the National Guard, the firefighters are going to get a needed break. Oops, read the fine print, dummy. Only 200 Guardsmen are coming, but Arnie says it will be a “big shot in the arm”. Not in his gigantic arm, I’m afraid.

Help! Smokey the Bear! Help! Where are you Smokey Bear?

Here is the pic of Mount Shasta Chris and I took this morning. You can see all the smoke plus a lenticular cloud (which some refer to as a spaceship) trying to make its way in from the North, and there were only a few chemtrails that we could find. Why can’t those spaceships and military planes leave our skies alone?

Smokey, Smokey, where are you?