Santa Cruz Mountain Wildfires

The smell of wildfire is slowly permeating our home this morning. “I thought I smelled burned toast,” my daughter tells me. I feel my chest tightening and take an extra puff of my inhaler before we get our shoes on for our mile walk up and down the hill to school. When I open the front door to the foggy morning â€" the air is so still, it’s eerie - the acid smell makes my nose wrinkle up. I try not to breathe deeply and wonder if we should really be driving, to avoid inhaling this contami