The Forest Fires Are Impacting More Than The Air Quality

There are so many fires in California and the Western States! It seems like every day we hear about another one! The impact is substantial in so many ways other than air quality. Economically, environmentally, quality of life and danger to home and life (especially the firefighters) and many subtle impacts that we are not aware of will be realized for years to come.

Today we were planning on attending the Annual Picnic of the Fly Fishing Association at Lake Alpine. We drive to Lake Alpine often and the only way to travel there from here is is to take Highway 4. The picnic had to be cancelled because of a forest fire caused by an escaped campfire last Saturday.  The fire has consumed more than 1000 acres in the Stanislaus National Forest. The Highway (4) is closed to through traffic. As you can see by the map, the fire is at the edge of the highway. In fact, it has jumped the highway. Lake Alpine is above the fire site. The skies are smoky and the temperatures are high.

I don't seem to be getting very much done today. But, we did have a good weekend. The movie, "Hope Springs" was fun.

And, we also went to the play, "Carousel" at the local Community Theater.

1956 Poster - Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae

The music of "Rodgers and Hammerstein" was great and certainly brought back memories of when I first saw the play more than 50 years ago! The story line was modernized but was still very entertaining. One of the actors in the play is a friend of ours. He is the Choir Director of our church choir.   The talent in our Tri-county area is quite remarkable.