Cough, cough, hack, hack...

So uh, it's kind of gross around here this week. There's a giant fire to the Northeast of us. We are managing alright. We are staying inside with the house closed up. Until yesterday, we only had air conditioning in the back of the house, in the office and bedrooms. We only needed it for that 2 week stretch when you can't live without a/c, at which point we just live in the back of the house.

Our house cools off quickly at night. That's why we haven't needed air conditioning throughout. At night, the windows are thrown open and a slight breeze combined with the evening air make it all better. Except we can't really open the windows this week. It's gross out.

The trick is to keep the house as closed up as possible to keep the smoke and soot out, but still cool it off without opening the windows. Lyle snapped. He bought an air conditioner for the living room.

The bad air is giving most people I know some intense headaches. I'm getting the smaller headache, and a scratchy throat. I'll be okay inside, but after a walk around the block with the dogs, my voice gets a tad hoarse. (trust me, better a sore throat than some crazy pent up dogs acting out in my house.)

But I've got my secret weapon. I brought in the air purifier from being stored in the garage and that is making a big difference in the bedroom at night. If I start to feel my throat closing up or a headache coming on, I go hang out in the bedroom.

I want you to know I'm not complaining. I'm just sharing the information. We are very lucky to not be in the path of the fire. So many other people are truly suffering. We are just hanging out and being quiet. The whole city seems to be. It's strange.

This photo is of the fire and smoke as photographed from space by NASA. I read today that the smoke has entered the jet stream and has been carried off as far as Denver now.

The picture above didn't make much sense to me, so I added an overlay of a map with names and freeways to it. We live at the yellow dot area.

(click on either photo to see larger)

It's massive. Our sunrises and sunsets all have a deep orange glow to them. They think they won't get this under control until sometime around the 15th, two weeks away.