Tomorrow is October 1, the informal start of Socal’s most infernal fire season – about six weeks of Oct and Nov. And at the moment I’m sitting at my desk, watching three aircraft drop bright orange fire retardant on a big brush fire about three miles away, in Bonsall. It’s unsettling.

Firefighters here have gotten good, and respond rapidly. But no system is perfect and we all wait in fear of The Next Big One. This isn’t it, the weather conditions are fairly mild. But still…