One of the websites that we’ve become familiar with this summer here in Baja Canada is the one that the National Weather Service runs to let you know just how bad for you the local air is.
I suppose having no air would be worse, these things being relative, but still.
It is a brightly colored map, cheerfully so in light of what it’s actually saying. Yellow means kind of bad. Orange means mostly bad. Red is just bad. Purple is really bad. And darker purple means that you should think very carefully about whether you really want to do anything more stressful than sit in an enclosed space and read a book. Next level: “Nothing but Flowers.”
This is, of course, the result of the wildfires in Canada. Apparently Canada is literally on fire and has been for a while now, as opposed to the US which is only metaphorically burning down, and the smoke has been drifting south into the US where Americans have no idea what to do with it since you can’t shoot it and it doesn’t go away when you stop believing in it. We’re a limited people that way.
Here in Our Little Town we’ve been alternating between red and purple all day, according to the map. You can tell. Even just looking across the street there is a haze between you and the neighbors that has nothing to do with the impending orgy of fireworks that hits every year this time.
It isn't the bright orange skies that people out east got a few weeks ago, but it’s still an experience.
We went up to see Lauren and Max yesterday for our delayed Father’s Day celebration. Hey – holidays happen when you have time for them, and this way we could all get together. And we had a lovely time, it has to be said. There was some retail therapy, notably at one of the bigger used book stores in the area. There was a decent meal made by people other than ourselves – not a particularly elegant meal, it must be said, as I am a fairly cheap date and I got to choose the place, but a tasty one and that’s all that mattered. And we shared some good conversation. All I really want out of these holidays is time spent with my family, and that’s what I got. I was a happy dad indeed.
I suppose having no air would be worse, these things being relative, but still.
It is a brightly colored map, cheerfully so in light of what it’s actually saying. Yellow means kind of bad. Orange means mostly bad. Red is just bad. Purple is really bad. And darker purple means that you should think very carefully about whether you really want to do anything more stressful than sit in an enclosed space and read a book. Next level: “Nothing but Flowers.”
This is, of course, the result of the wildfires in Canada. Apparently Canada is literally on fire and has been for a while now, as opposed to the US which is only metaphorically burning down, and the smoke has been drifting south into the US where Americans have no idea what to do with it since you can’t shoot it and it doesn’t go away when you stop believing in it. We’re a limited people that way.
Here in Our Little Town we’ve been alternating between red and purple all day, according to the map. You can tell. Even just looking across the street there is a haze between you and the neighbors that has nothing to do with the impending orgy of fireworks that hits every year this time.
It isn't the bright orange skies that people out east got a few weeks ago, but it’s still an experience.
We went up to see Lauren and Max yesterday for our delayed Father’s Day celebration. Hey – holidays happen when you have time for them, and this way we could all get together. And we had a lovely time, it has to be said. There was some retail therapy, notably at one of the bigger used book stores in the area. There was a decent meal made by people other than ourselves – not a particularly elegant meal, it must be said, as I am a fairly cheap date and I got to choose the place, but a tasty one and that’s all that mattered. And we shared some good conversation. All I really want out of these holidays is time spent with my family, and that’s what I got. I was a happy dad indeed.
But driving up there was kind of eerie.
The map was purple and red the whole way up. There was a grey haze over the entire landscape, and the sun was a faded dot in the sky. If you didn’t know what it was you could convince yourself that it was actually foggy.
I don’t remember this happening when I was younger, and over the last few years it seems to have become more common. The earth is not happy with us and I can’t say I blame it.
We do what we can, though, and sometimes all you can do is share a meal with those you love and talk about baseball.
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