What is going on?

This is what I kept muttering to myself as I drove home tonight, staring at beams of light arcing out from oncoming traffic. Beams. Not just light splayed over nearby surfaces. Great horizontal pillars of light, or rather, of illuminated smoke. Everything was immersed in a light layer of smoke. No fire visible. The smoke smelled like fire, though and not like fog or car exhaust at all. The Hills are on fire.

According to the most recent updates (as of this writing) from the AP wire, "smoke from the fire [in the Grizzly Gulch area near the town of Deadwood] could be seen 100 miles away. A huge column of smoke was drifting over Bear Butte and Sturgis." Deadwood and some area residences have been evacuated. The Grizzly Gulch fire is not nearly as serious as the Arizona Rodeo-Chediski fire, which CNN reports has covered over half a million acres so far--the largest fire ever in that state. But it's still something new for me, and it's What's Going On in the 'Hills right now.

Oh, and about that: What's Going On in the 'Hills. This may or may not be the best area events calendar--in print, on air, or on the Web--that I've ever seen. Much of it is crap, but much of what we do for fun around here is crap, so the PanCal is alarmingly effective in that respect. Denizens of the City, spread the word!

...I had more, but screw it. World Cup final in two hours or so. I think I told my Polish co-worker the wrong time and channel for the game. Whoops...
...also, new computer monitor coming soon (I hope), so perhaps I will be able to design something. Or maybe I'll learn the hard way what the phrase "poor color reproduction" in all those LCD panel reviews means...