The sky is back to its normal color again today. The newspaper said to expect another couple of days of yellow skies, but that seems not to be the case, at least not for the moment.

It's a big difference from yesterday when, at eleven-thirty in the morning, the light coming into the room from the window looked like it was about eight pm and we were in the last vestiges of a summer sunset. We were sharing photos in work Slack. The sun was a tiny orange ball.

The yellow skies the past two days -- if you're reading this ten years from now, they are the result of smoke drifting down from massive wildfires in Canada -- have been especially unnerving if, like me, you grew up in hurricane country, where a sky that color means "you probably should have either evacuated (or hunkered down in your house with the windows taped and backup water and power) by now."

But we're also a windy place, here. By about twelve-thirty yesterday, when I went out on foot to do my usual Wednesday out-on-foot things, walking down one particular street the sky was a notably different color on one side. Gray-yellow on one, gray-blue on the other. The winds were visibly blowing the smoke out to sea. Presumably that's a big part of the reason it's not yellow today.

The smoke did cool everything down, blocking out the sun the way it did, and parts of yesterday and Tuesday were actually tolerable because of it. Today we're back to over eighty-five degrees by noon, and I am contemplating the question of whether I will need to turn the office air conditioning on today to be able to concentrate on the things I have to do, and if so, when. Right now there's a breeze. That may not last.