Clearer air. Cooler air. A sun that earlier was, finally, more yellowish than orange-ish. Conditions in Portland are getting better.

Yesterday, when I went out walking, I deliberately didn't do my usual thing of reading as I walked. I wanted to concentrate on Getting To Places Inside (Especially That Have A/C), and I felt reading would slow me down, out in the ashen air.

Today, I walked and read again. And even sat outside, first on Foster in front of Henry Higgins Boiled Bagels (closed for the night, so I wasn't taking a seat from a paying customer) then in Mt. Scott Park near where I live. I stayed out until it started to get a little dark.

Meanwhile, parts of the area have gotten, at least, a sprinkling of rain. We know some areas of the Columbia River Gorge are not too badly damaged; such as at Multnomah Falls; other parts of the Gorge are, sadly, badly damaged from the fires. As bad as things are elsewhere — thinking of you, Gulf Coast post-Harvey, the Caribbean and Florida as Hurricane Irma approaches, the other fires in the West — we are seeing needed signs of relief.