I've spent most of the morning just wandering around the house, looking agape out the windows at the dark orange skies, occasionally stepping outside to try to take a photo and marveling at how cold it is because of how thoroughly that powerful California sun is blocked by smoke.

As I wrote last week, I've been on a social media fast since August 8, logging out of Facebook and Twitter on my phone as we left for vacation in Point Reyes and leaving my computer behind entirely. (I still feel both very lucky to have gone on said vacation when we did and a bit obscene talking about having vacationed there while the park is still closed to visitors due to the Woodward fire there.)

Today is day 27 of my 156 day sabbatical, spanning August through December. I'm trying not to obsess too hard over how much of my sabbatical has passed and how much is left, but in writing this I couldn't resist doing the math and learning that I'm 17% through my sabbatical at this point.