This morning I looked through the smoke and saw the sunspots on the sun. Then I got the binoculars and looked again. That probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but it's probably healthier than breathing right now.

There's so much smoke in the air that I can't really see the hills down the road -- and I like watching those hills because I suspect that if two of the three fires join, they will do so near those hills.

To the east, the closest branch of the Cedar fire got stopped at Dehensa Road after it burned all along La Cresta Road. Map.

The current worry is that the Otay fire (also called the Mine fire and Dulzura fire) will come up and meet the Cedar fire somewhere Jamul-ish, if the Cedar fire breaks south.

We have friends in Alpine (east-ish past this map) who were told to be ready to evacuate, but with fire to the west and fire to the east they don't really have a good way out.