California on Fire.

Sunrise Recordings. You can see the progression of the fires in the morning photos this week as the smoke gets more and more dense with each passing day. You will notice that I didn't catch on right away that the dark and foggy mornings were a direct result of the smoke from the fires.

6/23 5:49 AM, San Francisco
So foggy. So normal for the summer. All the streetlights were still on. Without the sunlight, they were the only points of light. Sunrise is LATER today than yesterday. woo hoo! Have a listen.

6/24 5:49 AM, San Francisco. SUNRISE AND SUNSET TIMES ARE THE SAME AS YESTERDAY AND WILL BE THE SAME TOMORROW!!!!
The bells don’t have to figure so prominently in the documentation anymore. Enough already. Since we have been listening to the mornings for a while now, let’s just listen to the mornings. I’ll set the recorder up somewhere and leave it in place while I move around the area with the bells. I am curious about how the bells sound from far away. I’d like to know which sounds carry the farthest and how the bells mix into the morning soundscape when they don’t figure so prominently.

6/25 5:49 AM, San Francisco
I set up the audio recorder outside kitchen door in the airshaft between the buildings and then walked around ringing the ship’s bell indoors. This is the last morning the sun will rise at 5:49 AM. Tomorrow we shave another minute off the morning light.

6/26 5:50 AM, San Francisco. Hazy Mornings From Distant Fires
As I walked away from the house this morning towards the south, one of the streetlights went out. It’s extra hazy these days because of the fires in Southern California

6/27 AM California Burning. Covers Solstice Sun
Foghorns dominated the sound this morning – more so than usual. The smoke from the fires has thoroughly mixed in with the fog and there is no direct sunlight. A whiteout. It looks about the same as the sunset last night. Same color and amount of light… The biggest clue to which way the sun is headed is the streetlights. Do they come on or turn off?

6/28 AM Smoke and Flame
So smoky. If you take a deep breath, there’s a good chance you will cough it out. And that’s the “good” air near the ocean. You can’t even smell the smoke anymore, but it will make your eyes itch and water. It’s even worse across the bay and that’s not very far. The smoke doesn't seem to affect the sound very much. Birds get up, papers get delivered and the streetcar runs pretty much on time.

6/29 AM We Haven't See the Sun In Days

More than 100 thousand acres have burned so far. The air quality is bad. Hard to breathe. And we here in San Francisco are the fortunate ones.

6/30 AM Too Excited

In my excitement of approaching the halfway point in this project, I jumped the gun. I thought today was the day, but upon closer (any) calculation I realized that because of the leap day in February, the 183rd day is half a year. And that's tomorrow. I am actually glad that I made a mistake, because now I have a second chance to do something special to mark the occasion. Consider this ringing a preliminary...