As many of my fellow Bay Area Kossacks know, we are undergoing a heatwave.  The temps in the inland areas are going to be in the triple digits.  The last I heard, San Francisco was supposed to hit 90 today.  We won't have any relief until the weekend.

In addition to the heatwave the air quality has been very bad as a result of the No. CA fires that are still raging.  This will make life worse for those, like me, with asthma.

First, my apologies that this took so long.  It shouldn't have.  Anyhow, here it is.

This is copied in full from Circle's diary .  Being on dialup, I had nothing better to add.  I just wanted to keep this alive. Again, apologies to Circle.  

So. I drove back through Anderson Valley, yesterday, through Boonville, and into Sonoma County, through Cloverdale south to Rohnert Park where I had an interview at KRCB, a Sonoma county NPR station. Otherwise, I wouldn't have made the drive. The smoke would have kept me in.  Air pollution is two to three times the amount considered safe by federal standards.

"All of Northern California is being impacted by severely degraded air quality," said Lake County health officer Karen Tait. "Residents should be prepared to stay indoors and avoid vigorous physical activity."

I had an adventure last week when my doorbell quit working.  I decided that a wireless would be in order.  I rent, but as our landlady is a friend, I didn’t want her to pay more than necessary for the replacement.  I know that as a renter, I'm not responsible, but fixing the odd bits here and there have paid off in the end.  Our rent has NOT gone up in the 6 years we've lived here. That adds to the savings, especially in the city.  

My diary is about how we can take being frugal too far and it will cost us more in the end.  Remember, your time is worth something too, as well as gas mileage, etc.

This diary applies mostly to small appliances and minor home repairs.  

I'm going to repost from FoundingFatherDAR's diary.  As we have Kossacks and their families in the area, it's good to keep the updates going.  

From his diary:

A wildfire in the Santa Cruz mountains has burned more than 1,000 acres, and has now been declared "out of control."  Some structures have been destroyed.
High, eratic winds are driving the flames and making it difficult to get fire suppression aircraft into the area.   This is in an area with dense forestation.  
Several local schools were closed.  One school first used as an evacuation site was subsequently evacuated.
Many people in the area have large livestock that need to be evacuated as well.

The fire started at about 5:30 a.m. Thursday off Summit Road near Loma Prieta Road in the Santa Cruz mountains.

NBC 11 Coverage

SF Chronicle