Hi Irmi! If I was out there, I would volunteer to drive your truck for you.
I just went out to WM to pick up a few things. The smoke was pretty thick but I could still see the mountains as I headed into WM. When I came out later, the wind had picked up considerably, I couldn't see the mountains at all and the smoke smell was nasty! Everything has an eerie orange glow to it. Am gonna try to take some more sunset pics but don't want to be outside very long. The smoke makes my eyes burn.
Looks like the temps are coming down this week to the low 100's. Will feel a bit better.
...Just went out to take pics of the sunset. It was like the sky was on fire! Will post some pics. I drove down the street to the entrance to the new trail to the Indio Badlands. From there I could get good shots without anything in the way. It was interesting that I found lots of small sea shells! Millions of years ago, this area was all underwater, part of the Gulf of California that extended all the way up here. So the area has a lot of evidence of that with seashells. The area I was standing on was recently excavated to make the new parking lot for the trail head. So they dug up some shells that were buried in the sand. I found quite a few there, pretty small ones tho. Was a pleasant surprise!
I discovered a puddle in my living room this morning. Thought Lola had gotten sick, which she does occasionally. But no. it smelled like urine! She has never peed outside the box before, so not sure why she would do that. The box was clean and only a few feet away. I hope she isn't losing control of her bladder.
The Apple fire has now moved up the mountains near Big Bear up to 10,000 ft. Glad I didn't head up there for the weekend! I hope it doesn't get too close to Big Bear. It is such a beautiful mountain town and is a ski resort in the winter.