…got sung at us before I started work this morning.

We have very patient kitties.

That got handled.

Editing is reaching uncharted territory and into unwritten territory. That means things go more slowly, with pauses for thought. I wish I could go out and sit by the pond, but it’s still too hot. We have the pink sky that says a forest is burning somewhere…I don’t know where.

Summer in Washington. I hate forest fires season. It’s the forest renewing itself: that’s the way it is. But it makes everything look odd-colored and it makes people wheeze. If we could get a little rain right now it would go a long way toward helping firefighters calm it down.

It was 99 here yesterday, breaking a record for a 3-day stint of high heat. It should cool down this weekend, but they’re also forecasting winds, and that won’t help the firefighters.

Forest fires are why I’m real glad not to live next to the woods up here. We have several towering hemlocks and a lot of trees, but if you’ve got this lovely wooded view on the edge of a town—you can lose it to fire and be staring at bare black sticks for a decade until it recovers. Not mentioning the scariness of wondering if the wind is going to shift and move the firefront in a way that the firefighters can’t fix.

The cost of living up here.