While strolling beside the American River during my daily walk with the dog this evening, I heard the sound of a siren in the distance. A moment later I spied a plume of blue smoke rising in the sky. My first thoughts were that I had run across a wild fire, and if I were able to get some good photographs of the fire fighters taming the flames, I'd have my first real scoop for the Sacramento Press. In fact, I thought, if the fire got big enough, and I got my reporting done quickly enough, and my step-daughter wasn't playing Sims on the computer when I got home (or if I could bully or bribe her out of the computer chair) and my wife didn't rush home from work, wanting to know what was for di