Hi Friends,
Despite the growing fire on the other side of the lake, we have had a few beautiful blue sky days here in Lake Tahoe. This morning, our luck changed, and we woke up to a brown-white sky and an AQI (Air Quality Index for those of you who are not living in wildfire regions) in the purple (very unhealthy). Certainly things could be worse. Last year at this time, we had just evacuated because of the Caldor Fire. I wrote about that fire, the smoke, and the stress-induced dreams here.
In the American West, late summer and early fall have been replaced by smoke season, leaving many of us wondering how we will continue to live where we live, at the urban-wildland interface, a place we love for its natural beauty, but is now more dangerous (and hazardous to our health) than ever. All of this has gotten me thinking about changes we cannot control, so that’s going to be the basis for this week’s 20-minute writing prompt.