Sorry I've been absent for... ummm... two weeks?

In case you haven't been keeping up with the news, the fires here in Eastern Washington State have been seriously scary. Spokane, in particular, has been catching fire. The city had evacuations of around 65,000 people at one point. 900 structures burned down.

Spokane is three hours to the East of me. But there are fires to the North as well. The combination of which has filled the skies in my region with smoke...

And, as you may know, I have severe smoke allergies.

In order for my lungs to endure it, I am taking medication which tears up my stomach. So I try not to take it except when needed to be able to work. The rest of the time my eyes water, my nose runs, and my lungs... itch. And that's the worst part. Itching from the inside and not being able to do anything about it.

And so...

I hunker down at home with my air purifiers and try to do nothing so I don't have to be medicated.

Including blogging.

But then today things were a little better. No idea if it's going to stay that way for a while.

I plan on enjoying it while it lasts.

I wrote this entry which I have written twice previously then deleted. Then I decided to sit on it over the weekend.

At which point I just said "fuck it" so I can move on.

I apologize in advance. After this, I will have my regular post about cats tomorrow, happy things I found on the internet on Sunday, and a week all about games! But in the meanwhile... sorry.

Monday morning I woke up and couldn't see the surrounding hillsides. It's wildfire season and the smoke was terrible. I walked outside to empty the trash and the haze immediately caused my eyes to water, my nose to run, and my lungs to itch. I have bad smoke allergies, which meant I had miserable times ahead of me.

But my misery wasn't what caused me to have a total fucking meltdown.

Last week Thursday, U.S. Representative John James of the great state of Michigan posted this...

I thought this was the height of ignorance, and was compelled to comment...

"When my state of Washington catches fire and smoke is blowing into Canada, they send help... not cruel and nonsensical threats. What a terrible neighbor you are."

I didn't unload on the asshole, I just chastised him for having such a bad take on the tragic situation happening to our neighbors to the north. He doesn't represent me or my state, so that's all I had to say on the matter.

But then...

THEN...

The next day the president of the United States of America decided to chime in...

"We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable! I will call the Prime Minister during the day to find out what they are going to do about it. The cost is incalculable! Canada has refused to engage in basic Forest Management and Debris Removal, knowing that such refusal will lead to exactly this result. This is Willful Negligence, and becoming a yearly occurrence, costing the United States Billions of Dollars, which cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP"

And I lost it.

This fucking piece of shit does represent me. He represents all Americans.

I then spent the weekend fuming over the fact that people are dying. Animals are dying. Homes are being lost. Livelihoods are being destroyed. And our Idiot in Chief decided the best course of action was to publicly post a predictably stupid, needlessly cruel, and sublimely ignorant statement like this. As if Canada is having a great time at our expense or something.

So I hammered out a rant to post in the morning, then set it aside to review it and post that night. Except I couldn't. I then spent the rest of the week biting my tongue thinking that eventually my anger would subside. Except it didn't.

And here we are.

Last Summer the fires in my area were particularly bad. The company I work for decided to donate some foodstuffs to help out the firefighters risking their lives. Myself and a colleague drove to one of the firefighter camps to unload a truck, at which time I noticed that there was a Canadian flag off in the distance. Turns out that our neighbors to the North saw how bad things were and wanted to help. Their politicians and Prime Minister didn't start unloading tweets threatening tariffs or accusing us of mismanaging our forests or whatever stupid shit our politicians and our president dropped out of their festering asses.

But it gets so much worse.

Five days before the orange piece of shit vomited up his bullshit, Canadian helicopter pilot Nicholas Dale died fighting a fire. IN COLORADO. Which is part of the United States, if you were unaware.

A Canadian lost their life helping us fight our fires less than a week before Trump unloads on his country.

Disgusting.

There's not a day that goes by that I'm not wishing for the repugnant ass in The White House to take a fucking seat and shut the fuck up.

But this past week I wished for it more than usual.

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.

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.

What's worse than having a smoke allergy during wildfires? Vomiting so hard that you throw your back into spasm, so now you have two things to torment you.*

On Saturday morning I was feeling so much better. But then nausea returned with a vengeance that night. I had anti-nausea pills left from something, which helped... but they were gone before I knew it and I had to wait until today for that plus some muscle relaxers for the stabbing pain in my back when I move. Or, Lord help me, cough.

Or, you know, violently throw up because you thought pasta salad was a good move.

Fortunately, laying on a heating pad got me through Sunday and the pills got me through my work day today (and I was able to keep dry toast down) so it was more of the same, I suppose.

There was a good thing that happened though.

While laying on the heating pad all day yesterday, I ran across an Australian show on Hulu which is one of the best things I've seen in a minute. I was going to take a pass because it deals with self-harm, but the trailer looked so good...

And I'm ever so glad I watched it.

It tackles a difficult, sensitive, and painful subject with wit, charm, and compassion... and is entertaining on top of it all. Exactly the diversion I needed, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I'm probably going to watch it again very soon.

There is one lingering question I have about the series that I won't say here because it could spoil things. Maybe it will be answered in the second season. Or maybe it never will because it's supposed to be up to the viewer. It doesn't matter. What does matter is how much I loved In Limbo.

Highest recommendation.

   
   
*Aside from the usual torments of daily life, of course.