Wednesday with Smoke on the Water?

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I've deleted my Wildfire Wednesday start since Harriet beat me to the post button!

Then I wrote this and failed to Post.

****

The air quality is worse this morning than yesterday and the apartment now smells like a campfire in all the rooms. The air filters can no longer keep up with that on Auto.

I'm going to head out to the concert this morning. Listening to the city's Medical Officer of Health it appears that I may as well go and deal with mental health, rather than isolate because it is obvious the apartment's air compromised as well. At least I can get to a place a/c and enjoy the outside air first (sounds weird to say that but with the wind, the smoke smell is stronger inside than out and I have to wear a mask inside or out so may as well get outside.)

Hopefully the bus is on time.

Bus was not on time, walked up to grab one from a busier street and it drove past us because we weren't right at the stop, we were waving it down having run (literally) across the road on an amber. No more buses were coming that would get us there on time so we walked back home with me crying. I swear that every time I try to do something for my mental health I get smacked down HARD.

As for a smoke and mirrors - that would be the bag of paperwork that sits on the floor beside my desk. There are also three file folder frames but they are at least semi organized, the bag contains unsorted, important, paperwork.

Was too upset to try and make any use of the concert time for paperwork.

Including the emergency preparedness project I'm supposed to be working on. Ironically, the high heat last week (which had the potential to become a heat emergency) and now the smoke (which also is an ever present distraction/worry) is slowing down my work on this project. The seminar was a month ago, and since then I arrived home, unable to get into the underground garage due to a building fire so and now the heat and smoke and so it isn't as if I think "this can't happen to me". It is just that I'm so overwhelmed.

If given 30 minutes to evacuate, do you have an emergency kit with a list of things to add to it before you head out? If you are heading home and discover your access is blocked due to an evacuation, do you have enough stuff in your car to manage at an evacuation centre?

Emergency preparedness is three fold - shelter in place (need food and water and battery backup for communication devices, as well as a way to seal off your home from outside gasses), evacuate to a shelter (enough to manage for a day or two and then return home because your area is unsafe), evacuate and face the possibility that your home won't be there when you return (wildfire, flood so you need all your ID, and important docs plus a plan for where to head to.)

The emergency radio arrived on Sunday night and I haven't opened the box yet to see if it looks any good. But I still have to assemble the go-bag (which has to be in a backpack so I can carry it down 22 flights of stairs) and make up the list of emergency contacts and info (in paper form in case my phone dies) and then a second go-bag for the car in case I can't get into the apartment. For shelter in place, I'm not in bad shape because we are used to that from snow storms and lately wind storms which cut power for days on end. It is the other two that need serious work.

I'm still glad I chose to do cleaning the past two days to deal with that part of my overwhelmedness. The white cloth I used for the dusting is now grey from the layers of dust. I'm guessing that on the days when the air was fresh and I had the windows opened wind, there was still ash and other allergens in the air that settled on everything. After just 36 hours, another layer is starting to build up. That's the downside to dark furniture! (In normal times the apartment, except the bedroom, doesn't show dust until at least 2 weeks have gone by.)

****

I did go to the brown bag lunch and enjoyed seeing the others. And my meeting was stressful but is over now and I have 3 pages of notes.

We'll go out for supper and do grocery shopping on the way home tonight.

[Nancy]

I was thinking I should pack a go bag thanks for that reminder K in C.
I have done a bit of mending.
Got the dining room floor swept.
Dishes are done need put away still.
I have water ready to refill the bird bath that has gotten a lot of activity and two young squirrels were playing in the front yard
in the shade of the tree after having maple seed lunch.
I had my lunch no seeds in mine! LOL!
Rested a bit and got the tulips in the shade watered trying to soak the soil so I can dig and move them to a place they will be seen
they are not tall enough to show with the trailer where it is, the plan is to put iris there instead.
Calling it plant tetris!

Moved a few weeds I'd pulled a while back into a 5 gal. bucket and got em in the bag to go later next week or when ever.
Pitch fork came in handy for that.
Did some hand wash.
Watered the beds.
Painted some rocks just for fun mostly dots for now. Still drying.
T-storms in our forecast the 5:00 ones were a now show.
Flood advisory is up as well.

[Lady Maverick]

It feels overwhelmingly busy here today but we are just going with the flow the best we can. While we were picking up the vehicle from body shop when the fence fellas called us to say they are at our home. We hurried home and put Sam (dog) into the house so they could start working replacing a drive-through gate. We had to play tetris with vehicles to get the contractors 2 work vehicles pulling 2 trailers plus a tractor to the place they needed to be. We have a fairly large & long driveway but with the combination of 10 pickups/suv plus 5 trailers and a tractor it took all of us moving vehicles to get everything in the best position. The contractor welder generator has been running for hours. It is noisy.

DD12 friends couldn't go swimming this afternoon so she doesn't want to go by herself. We are working on setting up a swimming date for another day.

I spent some time organizing a family meal for tomorrow evening to celebrate DD46 birthday. We already have 4 dentist appts on the calendar for tomorrow afternoon so hopefully those will go smoothly and not influence eating abilities.

[Harriet]

lucylee, the only thing we take in a gummy here is HRH's apple cider vinegar. It's better that way, to him. He enjoys vinegar ON foods but doesn't have it regularly "as is". He had decided he'd like to try it daily, so the gummy works well. I chatted in H and F about my 2 dds' research into "superfoods" shakes powder. Dd24 took her bag to work and her boss showed her that she has the same one at work, too. Maybe dd can talk her into a mini blender, since there are at least 2 people in the office who would appreciate it now. So far, she's fine using old fashioned shaker with ball inside, but of course that's not chilled.

The young man is coming over this evening to build/work on a computer with HRH and dd. He's bringing Taco Bell, yipes. Making allowances for veggie (black bean). HRH will get his fave, their Cinnamon Twists. He hasn't had those in ages.

The only thing about a meal like this is that, to me, it is so difficult to have without a carbonated drink. I have them here, certainly. I just try to avoid for as long as I can with foods that aren't so salty. (Is it saltiness that seems to "require" carbonation? Or just heavy/rich?) Whichever, Taco Bell does seem to do it. Our own tacos made at home are fine without any particular drinks.

Don't get me wrong - I do appreciate the gift. I get it - it's celebratory for new computer or something. I celebrate again Friday (graduation) and again Saturday (bday), however, with grands' events.

I have peer pressure from my grands.

I honestly thought the air quality situation wouldn't last much longer for anyone. Wrong.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

At the moment, our air quality is quite acceptable but the smell of smoke is strong (just goes to show the two aren't linked.)

So I'll open up tomorrow morning and then close up and put on the air purifiers to get rid of the campfire smell. The idea is to dilute any build up of CO2 in here. The bad smoke will return later on Sunday when winds shift again to be less favourable for us.

We had dinner out and got to the store but I forgot my list so didn't buy much. Just milk and soda and an apple.

Off to bed now.

Tomorrow is another day. A nice outing with my childhood best friend to a restaurant (it will be chilly so I think we'll not bother with the picnic at the farm even if the air quality is fine.)

[Harmony]

Kathryn, I'm sorry you missed your concert like that. Mean old bus driver. I hope the bad air doesn't last too much longer.

I was planning to go shopping early right after dinner, but DH was going to youth group (not many more of them thank goodness till the fall) and I told him to go ahead and take the car but please don't use it tomorrow as I have to get to the store. I found some chicken in the freezer and I had some oriental veggies and I made a stir fry with some rice. It's a good time to clean out the freezer anyway.

Pretty big project here needs done... statement for this work DH has been involved in since last November. I went through my receipts and checked a couple to make sure I hadn't copied them twice for the statement or that I hadn't missed any. We make up a statement and I staple all the receipts to it. Nobody ever questions what we are asking for because it's all right there in black and white.... though it's a pain to keep copying all the receipts as DH brings them home or when they come in the mail. But it makes creating the statement way easier. I think DH lost a lot of money doing it the way he used to...trying to remember what he needed to charge people. When I took over the office our income went up.

I had a lady we know from church call and ask for rides to church. I am apprehensive about doing this, but felt like I should and I said yes. She said she will probably only go once a month... but she is turning 90 and doesn't drive any more; she has a terminal illness and also something wrong so that she blacked out a couple times. I feel bad for her but she lives alone still and says she misses the fellowship. Her house is way out of the way, but she says nobody comes around from our church, to visit or bring communion, so I will try to do this for her. She will eventually go onto Hospice and move to Orlando where she has a couple sons. She can be a difficult lady, but I have to remember that someday I will be 90 (if I make it that long) and will be in a similar situation. Maybe.

[Elizabeth]

Hi everyone! I am done with all daily stuff except posting here. The extra things I have done are: wrote a friend (need to get her address), picked up prescription cat food, workout, and took turkey from freezer. Also CUOPed.

What I have not had a chance to do: insurance stuff, work computer update, email catchup, and back up home computer.

I am sad because I found out Isra, a foster adopted out of my house last year at age 16, has died. She had a great life before my house but her person had to go into assisted living. She seemed happy in my house, but was really happy with her adopters. She ended up with inoperable liver tumors.

I am a little worried. I cannot quit coughing and my chest is heavy and sometimes hurts. Obviously no medical places except the ER are open now. You cannot use the phrase chest pain there or they assume heart attack and I just want to quit coughing. Maybe some hot tea will help.