Ash Wednesday

This is the layer of soot that is accumulating on all surfaces, this picture happens to be the mat in front of our front door. Nice gray and black flecks lined up along the edge, we are inhaling that.

The next picture is the view down the end of our street this morning, half a block to the stop sign. It's hazy and the air is OH SO BAD. I took the girls for a half-block walk, down to the end of the street and back, so they would think they were getting out of the house. It was so bad I was coughing by the time we got home.


Not much change in the fire, overnight it only got a little bigger. I think it's up to 46,000 acres, and 10% contained. They have more firefighting help now, and the National Guard came in to help with roadblocks. Today is a hot one, and the wind is shifting a bit, which is scary to the north. I can tell because right now, at 1 pm, it's not as smoky as it was this morning.

Got all my errands done, an oil change, some groceries, all but finished packing except for the last few things tomorrow morning, and even cleaned the bathroom.

And this is the weather forecast for Custer, South Dakota in the coming days, as of yesterday. Nice, eh? Not exactly heat training, but by most people's standards this would be ideal running weather in the summer. And they have much cleaner air.

So we're going. We will figure it out. The whole point of all of it is to have fun, so we're not going to stress out over logistics. We'll do what is possible given our daylight hour time constraints, we'll make the best of it, and I'll send pictures!

Check back here for updates, I'll post whenever it goes through. We start running on Friday. And hope, pray, dance, whatever your spiritual preference...for rain, no wind, and help for everyone fighting and living with this fire.