Smoke, and fire... !

Last night, had finished up dinner, and was watching the news about high wind warnings and smoke warnings.  We had noticed the smoke rolling in a bit, the wind had changed, and the fires near by are... About 40 or so miles away.  Had just taken this picture...

That's the smoke, not fog.  Then, the power went out.  We got together the lantern and lights, Husband set up the generator if it was a long outage, and he turned on the ham radio.

Well, started hearing on the fire frequencies that power lines were going down left and right, along with breathing difficulties...  Husband talked to a few other hams, the smoke was bad with them, too.  I didn't join in, I just listened.  

The smoke got progressively worse, to the point I was hacking and coughing, Husband remembered we had an air cleaner.  We started it, and cleared the house air fairly well.  

It was a long night for me, wondering if I could get both cats, if we had to evacuate, since power lines were starting fires locally. I was concerned about what things we might have to take, or leave.  Just the usual overthinking, I guess.  

In the morning, we were greeted with this...

It looked like 8 or 9 in the evening, not morning!  We stirred about, checking things. I dug out my one and only N95 mask, and went out to feed the chickens.  They wouldn't come out of the hen house, and most stayed roosted.  They thought it was night, still, I guess...  Buzz didn't like the generator noise, and had to be coaxed to her bowl.  

So, our power is still out, probably will be for a while.  The power trucks have been by, checking lines.  My parents are with a different provider, and so far still have power.  We have received notification that our local fairgrounds are a shelter.  

This is certainly different than a quick drive to the coast that we'd planned for today.  Thankfully, we are doing fine (except for an insistent tickle in my throat), and it's certainly not the first time we've had to deal with an extended power outage!

Hope all my blog friends are okay.  So, updates as events warrant.