I have no idea where the days are going. The weekend passes so quickly it scarcely feels like it existed... then it's back to work where it's an exhausting blur until it's the weekend again. Months feel like weeks. I swear it was just July and here it is October. I can barely remember any of it. At this rate It will be New Years when I wake up tomorrow.

In the meanwhile, there's the here and now.

So there I was... scrolling through Facebook tonight and trying to avoid all the AI slop that is plaguing social media, when I see this...

A little scrolling later and I saw this...

Then I scrolled a little further and saw this, with both cosmic events in the same graphic...

Both of the maps showing that my neck of the woods had good visibility!

Except... it's Fall, which is to say that my odds of having "good visibility" here is not great.

And, sure enough, the night sky was completely obscured.

Oh well. There's always old reruns of Columbo to occupy my Thursday evening.

Our brave firefighters keep gaining ground on the wildfires in the area that have been burning for over five weeks, and it's looking like there's finally light at the end of the tunnel. Today the fire to the north reached 55% containment. And while the fire to the south was holding steady at 7% for weeks, today they announced that the crews there have managed to achieve 10%.

The bad news is that what kind of day I have depends entirely on how the wind blows, because the smoke is still pretty bad.

Every once in a while blue skies will arrive... for a while... which means my lungs won't feel as fuzzy, my eyes won't be burning as severely, my head will be less likely to start exploding, and I won't be coughing as much. I also won't have to take an excessive amount of allergy medication.

But it's always fleeting.

Which is to say that I still go directly to work in the mornings then go directly home afterwards. And still feel awful most days.

Thank heavens for grocery delivery! But even then, having to open the door to receive my order guarantees an instant headache until the air purifiers can get things under control again.

Can you believe that I honestly thought we'd make it through the Summer without a wildfire?

I wake up every morning and look out the window to see what kind of day I'm going to have. If I can see the surrounding hills, it's probably going to be a fairly good day (at least to start... who knows where the wind will take us). If I can't see the surrounding hills, I'm pretty much guaranteed a day of misery from the minute I walk out the door. And today was one of those days. We were socked in and I could smell smoke on Jake when he walked in, which means he was out in the catio.

But, as I lay here now at night? I can see a star.

Sure it's just one, but it gives me hope for tomorrow. It would be nice to be able to go outside instead of hiding in my house all weekend.

And now... for all the Swifties out there, today was the day...

The album that changed my mind about Taylor Swift was 1989. It was pop perfection and had the lyrical masterpiece that is New Romantics. Then she followed it up with Reputation and Lover and I was convinced that she was going to be on my "Best Of" list until I was dust.

But then she took a turn with Folklore and Evermore which lost me. Fortunately Midnights was a return to the Taylor I enjoy listening to, and I thought maybe... but then The Tortured Poets Department had only one song I truly liked (along with a smattering on the first part that were okay) and I thought "Well, it was fun while it lasted."

And now we get The Life of a Showgirl.

It runs the gamut, going from pop optimism and clever musical turns to a dis track on (assumably) Charli XCX and a bouncy song about her fiancée Travis Kelce's dick being as big as a redwood that opened her thighs.

In the end, this album is a partial u-turn back towards the 1989 era. Though it does get dragged down by a few tracks that won't be added to my playlists any time soon.

As for the others? Thank you, Taylor! I'm enjoying them.

The wildfire smoke has been so bad that I ended up taking the weekend off. From everything. Including blogging.

Despite the fact that I cowered in my home with air purifiers on full power... Saturday was residual misery from going to work in heavy smoke on Friday, and Sunday I made the mistake of taking out the garbage without a mask. In a city which I would later learn had the worst air quality in the entire country.

Fires to t he North. Fires to the South. And I read that some people are starting to wonder if the fires might merge. At which point I will be evacuating along with the rest of the city.

Personally, I think it's unlikely. As the weather cools and rain is forecast, fire containment by our firefighters seems the safer bet. Fortunately, it's not July right now, or I'd be pretty worried.

Well, more worried than usual.

My view on the way home yesterday felt like the End of Days.

A canyon outside of town is under immediate evacuation. Air tanker planes are flying overhead, shaking the house and freaking out the cats. The fire began 24 days ago. Now 31,000 acres are in flames. Winds are making containment difficult. We could really use rain... but I worry that it could come with lightning and start more fires...

I honestly thought we'd escape a major fire this season. Guess not.

The wildfire smoke was back with a vengeance this morning, which made for a miserable day. I masked up in a futile attempt to not end up with itchy lungs, which is the worst, but to no avail. I had to drive into the Big City after lunch and ended up pulling over on the way back to puke my guts out into my car's garbage bag. Doesn't get more fun than that.

After stopping by home to brush my teeth, I went back to work and felt like dying for two hours. Then I drove home and have felt like dying for four more hours.

The good news is that the Air Quality Index dropped from a hazardous 294 to a slightly less hazardous 257.

The bad news is that it will probably still be smokey enough to make me sick tomorrow.

Also the bad news... more misinformation bullshit has been unleashed upon an unsuspecting world... vaccines AND Tylenol causes autism now?!? God. I suppose not even the fact that the World Health Organization has declared there's no evidence of any of this will make no difference. Just throw it on the ever-growing pile of idiocy that's going to fuck over humanity. I mean, if people believe the earth is flat, they'll believe anything.

Meanwhile, I'm off to bed way too early in the hopes that I can somehow fall asleep so my lungs can clear out and not feel fuzzy and itchy any more. Where's my Tylenol PM?

My comfort level, as of late, is dependent on the wind.

If the wildfire smoke is blowing out of the valley, I'm able to have a (relatively) normal day. But if the wind direction is blowing it into the valley, I prepare myself to have a miserable day.

The good news is that my body is tolerating the allergy pills better now that I've been taking them for a couple weeks, so at least I don't have to worry about not being able to keep food down (and, consequently, throwing my back into spasm from vomiting). I also don't have to worry quite so much about itchy lungs, which is the absolute worst. Nothing quite like an itch there's no way to scratch because it's inside of you, and gets worse with each breath.

So, yeah, with the exception of insomnia (which is as bad as it's ever been), everything is peachy-keen.

Half my kingdom for an off switch.

Despite the fact that I'm a vegetarian, I've been wildly adventurous with experiencing world cuisine. So long as there wasn't any meat or mushrooms in it, I would try just about anything. I've had some incredibly spicy curries and questionable preparation of various foods... but my stomach is like cast iron, and I've never been worse for wear. And that's been the case for as long as I can remember.

What I am very easily affected by are medications. Which is the reason that I try to take as few of them as I can.

But sometimes it's unavoidable if I want to... you know... live, and stuff. Or, at the very least, live comfortably.

The latest I'm having to take came with a list of side-effects. And high up on that list is diarrhea. Which is to say that I'm 100% guaranteed to get it. Which is fine, because Imodium exists. But it's not like I am dying to take that because sometimes it causes more problems than diarrhea does.

Like I said, medications are problematic.

So it's a gambling game.

Is the gurgling in my intestines going to end up being bad enough that I should take the Imodium? Or will it be a minor event and I can proceed safely through my day without it?

As you can imagine, guessing wrong can have very dire consequences indeed.

So as I get older, I find myself less and less willing to chance a diarrhea incident gone terribly wrong. Which is why I'm seriously thinking about buying stock in the company that makes Imodium.

Sure it's insider trading, but who doesn't listen to their bowels when considering investments?

After recovering all weekend by staying out of the wildfire smoke, it was back outside to go to work today.

Somehow I survived.

Though it doesn't really feel like it, because if not for the smoke I would have been out and about over the weekend. Summer days are growing short, and it would be nice to take advantage of that. Not that I can complain too much, because I did some more things framed and hung up... and was able to clean a good chunk of my house now that my back spasms are mostly gone.

Not that I was feeling well enough to scrub the bathrooms... but I did vacuum. And that counts.

I thought I would wake up in serious back pain after re-injuring it by trying to run my dishwasher.

But I didn't toss and turn in my sleep and woke up laying on my heating pad the same as I fell asleep. Now, granted, I only managed to sleep 4 hours and 10 minutes (according to my Apple Watch), but still... I was quite happy, because my back felt... fine?!? Last thing I remember my cats were both next to me, but only Jake remained when I woke up.

Well, fine enough that I didn't end up taking a muscle relaxer, but it was far from great. Though when I got home I vacuumed the floor without issue, so maybe resting over the weekend will heal me up that I can have a semi-normal week next week.

Now, I realize it's not Caturday until tomorrow, but I am compelled to share the photo I took before falling asleep yesterday. Jake is infamous for hopping on the bed where Jenny is sleeping and laying on top of her legs or her head or whatever. Except last night Jake lay down just next to her, and I was thrilled that he didn't disturb her spot since she was there first.

Then he started kicking his legs, waking her up (again), before he finally stuck one of his legs through hers. She was, as you'd imagine, thrilled...

Thank heavens I was looking at my phone at the time this happened. Usually I miss photos of moments like this.

But then she fell back asleep, so no harm no foul, I guess?

Until sometime in the middle of the night Jake did something to make her scamper off.