SMOKE AND STUFF: This morning we had quite a surprise upon upping. A fine layer of ash covered our cars, laundry left outside, and windowsills and more in our house.
It reminded me of when Mt. St. Helens erupted back in 1980. This time, however, it was wildfires, rather than a volcano, responsible for the blanket of ash.
You could actually watch the ash rain down this morning. Meanwhile, the muted sun was an eerie red burning through the thick layer of smoke. I wanted to stare at the sun for a bit, so I donned our safety glasses left over from the eclipse. But lo and behold, with those on, I couldn't even see the sun! It was too faded by the smoky haze.
I snapped this photo of the sun yesterday afternoon.
The photo at the top of this post is from the NASA Terra satellite. As you can see, smoke currently covers most of the Pacific NW.
The main source of our ash and smoke is a fire in Cle Elum, about 83 miles to the east and a little south of us.
And today, I watched social media being flooded with photos from my friends in southwest Washington and the Columbia River Gorge area. According to multiple reports some young idiots with fireworks apparently rather purposely set a forest fire there. It's out of control with 10,000 acres gone. So much wildlife and plant life killed, and structures destroyed. Such a shame.
One photo that keeps showing up is a before and now.
SHE'S BACK: In much happier news, this weekend the remarkable Peggy Whitson returned to Earth.
I just love this photo of the Soyuz capsule shortly after it touched down.
Just imagine ... there are three humans inside that smoking spacecraft, still hot from plummeting through the Earth's atmosphere!
Whitson’s return was at the end of a 288-day mission that began last November and spanned 122.2 million miles and 4,623 orbits of the Earth. It was her third long-duration mission on the station. During her latest mission, Whitson performed four spacewalks, bringing her career total to 10. All totaled, Whitson has spent 665 days in space, which makes her the U.S. record holder on the all-time space endurance list.
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