Nurture your Nature

In the Land of Smoke

Sunday, the 18th of July: 76 degrees at 11:30 racing towards 100. AQI of 135 = staying in.

I did sleep okay. The window fan blowing out has really cooled down the room. Now to clean the mess I made when I moved all the plants around!

Without the fan, my room never got comfortable, never cooled down. Over 90 sounds miserable to folks who live in a humid place. It's particularly bad in parts of Appalachia that have barely a breeze. But here? It's dry and the land cracks and the skin cracks and... cracks.

Living in a proper house at street level with a shady yard (we have enough rain for trees like ash, elm and locust) it's actually not too bad. Warm by noon. Hot in the late afternoon. Chilly in the morning. The temperatures can vary by as much as 40 degrees, almost like 3 seasons... daily.

But the smoke. It's hazardous. About 4 years ago there was ash in the air and I went out without a mask... silly me... I'm sure I damaged my lungs. I escaped to Tromsø in the north of Norway. Pure air. Incredible. My lungs rejoiced. It took two weeks for them to clear out.

This is the Land of Smoke. Every year. Some worse than others. When Nature doesn't start a fire, idiots do. And the biggest idiots are the controlled burns in Idaho. My answer is goats for underbrush. Others have suggested chipping, mulching and clearing of dead wood. But it's easier to burn... like in Brasil, except most Americans don't see it that way.

When we don't have smoke we have dust. It covers all surfaces. I'm not a duster. The Plains are dusty. Should I move back (and yes, I want to move back) I'd have to deal with that, and torrential rains and flooding, tornadic winds and 'weather'. One never takes eyes off the sky.

But I wouldn't want to live in most American cities. They are built for those who have a car attached to their butts. Traffic? Welcome to Kansas City... or any city. I'm better off in a real city like Torino, Italy (medium), Taipei, Taiwan (huge) or Lillihammer, Norway (small) where one can walk, take buses, use the Metro or train. Real cities. Livable cities.

Even small villages in Taiwan have a train stop and in Norway it's easy to flag down the bus. It's possible to live in quite rural areas, visiting the nearby town or big city only when needed. In Holland one just takes a bicycle, walks to the train or peers out the window watching the neighbors or being amused by the panorama of humanity passing by.

Billie Jo and I do that here. Almost every day sitting in front of the 3rd floor window gazing at downtown, the depot, the river, the bridge and the people crossing the bridge or kayaking, surfing, tubing down the river, cycling down the paths. Writing this it sounds idyllic! But I'm stuck inside with mute plants looking out at a white sky.

~510 words

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