photo credit: Theo R

I live in Northern California, just one county south of the area where there are hundreds of forest fires. These fires were created by lightning strikes and the forecast is for a possibility of more to come. Ironically, these are “dry” thunderstorms, meaning that they form rapidly and the rain never hits the ground. So we don’t even get that little silver lining of water.

Some good friends of mine live in the town of Paradise. Well, Paradise almost burned and they had to evacuate. Fortunately, their home was spared. Hopefully it will remain safe.

The reason for the title of this post is that there is so much particulate matter floating in the air that it looks like Los Angeles during a bad smog day. Everything has a tint of orange to it, and if you have any respiratory problems, you are warned to stay indoors. Yesterday, as the sun was setting, I was shocked to see a blood red sun. It felt like I was on a moon looking at Mars. I’ve seen Harvest Moons, and I’ve seen eclipses. I have watched comets go by and counted falling stars during meteor showers. But nothing celestial has ever hit that hidden primordial part of my soul like seeing that blood red sun. It was eerie!

Unfortunately, by the time I noticed it, I didn’t have time to get home to my camera and I missed the opportunity to photograph it. But guess what I’ll be doing today as the sun gets lower in the sky. It may have been a fluke thing, but if it happens again I will post a photo of it. 

UPDATE: No red sun, so I missed out on a great photo opportunity.