Yesterday a fire broke out about thirty miles east of here, which is pretty much the other side of the mountains. The forest service has given it the oddly classical name the Minerva fire. There were water bombers flying over the neighborhood all afternoon, probably on their way to scoop water out of Oroville Lake. It's a forested region that's burning, so it won't spread as fast as the brush fires that burn at lower elevations. I haven't smelled any smoke from it so far, but the wind sometimes switches around to blow from the northeast at night so maybe later I'll get a whiff.
There haven't been many insects out lately, other than the ants and the crickets. There were a couple of daddy long legs spiders on my back porch for a while, but I swept their webs away and they haven't returned. I haven't seen a single black widow yet this summer, either, which is very odd. Moths haven't been very numerous, though I see one or two butterflies every day if I spend enough time outdoors. I haven't even gotten very many mosquito bites, though I got one on my left ear when I was out watering in the backyard this evening.
I picked up more liquids when shopping today, in preparation for the upcoming hellishness. They were on sale, but not as on sale as I'd have liked them to be. Still, I got a couple of other bargains that partly offset them. I hope they last all week. They probably will if the nephew doesn't come around and get into them. Hah. Like that won't happen.