04 September 2017

[liff] Sunrise On The Day The Ash Fell In Portland

3482.
This morning dawned stuffy, still, and excessively red.


That's this morning's sunrise over the old Owens-Illinois glass plant, just northwest of the big Killingsworth-I205 interchange, just southeast of Portland International Airport. I adjusted the aperture and exposure on the Canon S-100 enough to make sure I got the sun's disk in there; there was enough smoke in the air to make it so one, could, indeed, stare at the sun for a few moments without harm.

The exposure settings made the environment gloomier than it really was, but the interpretation of the scene, ironically, fits the mood perfectly. It didn't look this way, but it sure felt this way.

This is the most stifling weather I've ever known. It's just after 8 PM, PDT, and the local weather station says it's still 82F, and, tonight, I'm receiving reports from friends all over the greater Portland area, that ash from the so-called Eagle Creek Fire - the one currently, at this writing, burning in the Gorge and putting the town of Cascade Locks under peril of evacuation - is falling at various points from here, Out 122nd Way, to Tigard and Hillsboro.

We, all of us, feel a little like dancing the apocalypso.

And so it goes.

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