I was at the Saline Rd. Meijer at 7:00 AM this morning perusing the ground beef selections. I always check what they have at Meijer because I like to keep a pound or two of ground beef in the freezer and sometimes when I get to the Plum, it’s early enough that they don’t have it in the meat counter yet. And they don’t always sell it pre-packaged.

Anyway, I got a text that said there was a scary AQI today, making it hard for people to walk out at the bog or whatever. I was like, “AQI”? Say what? It’s the air quality index and it is ultra high because of forest fires in Quebec (and other places including the Great Lake State).

I was initially a bit flummoxed by this because I was oot and aboot (like a Canuckian does) early this morning and it was like 50 degrees, not hazy (that I could see) and a little breezy. I didn’t smell smoke and I was having absolutely no trouble breathing but I never really do have trouble breathing, not even during my COVID case. I had two COVID symptoms: 1) VERY mild cough and 2) EXTREME ANNOYANCE.

I spent a fair amount of time today trying to figure out how real this threat is. I mean the NPR station I was listening to was spouting out AQI warnings every ten minutes or whatever. I get that this can be an issue for people with asthma and other lung problems but I felt like they were over-reporting it a bit. In recent years every weather event seems to get over-hyped. Last year around this time we had a 92 degree day and there were warnings about it for THREE DAYS. It did get hot that day but for many reasons, I was okay. Strong breeze. Central air, which I didn’t even turn on. Shaded lot. Etc.

i am not saying that the AQI is not important because it is for people with breathing issues and it is likely to be worse in the future. I guess I am not saying anything much at all. There’s so much I don’t know…

The takeaway is that when the text message came in, I started talking to myself. In the grocery store. A fellow customer (cool-looking young black guy) caught on to that and we had a moment of hilarity.

I’m watching Outlander episodes (two tonight) and so I am about done done done. Just started season 3.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 8th, 2023 at 8:51 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.