Everyone east of the Mississippi is all abuzz about the Canadian wildfires and the resultant smoke that is descending upon the US. Around the eastern half of the country, air quality is trending from bad to worse. Even here in the Lou we have experienced some air quality alerts, even though technically, we are west of the river. We even have one today. Photos of hazy New York skies and skylines now dot the internet. There is no disaster quite like a NYC disaster. I had just stopped planning our domestic travel while using Covid maps and now I must start using smoke trail maps. Both disasters frequently require the wearing of N95 masks. Much of this problem is due to the northern Jetstream being twisted into a pretzel and drawing smoke from northeast of us in Quebec, back southwest to the Lou. Forecasters have this current bout of bad air dissipating soon, but this is likely going to be a summer long event. It was dry up at the cabin when we were there earlier this summer, with high fire danger and red flag warnings. I imagine that it is drier still up in Canada.

In other smoke related news, our niece Ashlan’s apartment building caught fire this week. She and Allen live in a high-rise in Queens. They had to evacuate their building, with nothing but the clothes on their backs and their baby and cat. They were walking down the multiple flights of stairs with a stroller and a pet carrier in tow, as the firefighters were headed up using the elevator. Think the towering inferno or 9/11. Ashlan posted photos of flames leaping out of the upper floors of the building, once they got outside. Later that night, after the fire was put out, they got back into their apartment. No damage to the apartment, except for some nervous cat pee found around the place.