No camping trip?

It may not happen this year.  I knew there were fires burning in southern Cal, but now there are some that are closer to home.  Right now they are closer to I-80, but the smoke and the fires could travel east to US 50, which is the route I would choose for travel to a camping space.  So much for all the rain we had during the spring months.

I keep the firefighters in my thoughts, as the terrain is so mountainous with no roads in and out of the area, they are mostly fighting it from the air at this point.  Eventually they will need "boots on the ground" though.  I'm afraid this is what the future holds, and will get worse if we don't get rain to replenish the reservoirs and ground water.  With rain and no trees to hold the ground in place, it can lead to mudslides that are devastating also.

Regarding my book on CD, it is called "Chestnut Street" by Maeve Binchy.  Like most of her books, they are collections of stories about individuals, and by the end of the book she pulls all these people and stories together.  The people in the stories will all end up interacting with each other in surprising and lovely ways.  I can't say anything about other audio books, but this one is extremely easy to listen to.

The Park maintenance manager just came to tell me he was replacing my electric meter.  (The gas meter was replaced last year, or maybe the year before.)  I guess it is scheduled maintenance.  

There has been constant shrill barking by a dog who is quite close, and in fact sounds like he is next door to me.  I didn't think Ed, my next-door neighbor would ever have a dog as he can barely take care of himself.  I asked the maintenance guy and he confirmed it's Ed's dog, and Ed is trying to find a home for him.  It might be a perfectly lovely little dog but I can tell from the shrill barks that I couldn't deal with it.  Besides, I like large dogs.

I would bet that one of Ed's young relatives gave him a dog to keep him company, give him something to care for, etc., which is always a bad idea.  No one should ever decide that someone else needs a dog and then arbitrarily find one for him.  One of my brothers did that to my Mom in her older years - a Yorkshire Terrier - who was cute as can be but never stopped barking.  It was worse when I visited my mom as the dog did not want us talking to each other.  He also barked constantly when she was on the phone.  My kids loved him but I could barely stand to be around him.  That probably cemented my feelings about small dogs.

Today and tomorrow are in the upper 90's range, and then we are scheduled for some low 90's temps.  If I believed in hell I would think I'm at the gates!  But as Sacramentans are fond of saying, "At least it's a dry heat."