It's Smoke, Not Fog: Air Quality Alert

6:21

7:00

It's 7:00 on a smoky, smelly morning, the result of fires in Canada. The air quality index is 152, as high as I have ever seen it. I did get in a half-hour on the lake and was lucky to see a heron and the sun, partially obscured by smoke. Fact from today's podcast: Washington, D.C. is basically an occupied city with 5,100 National Guard roaming the streets. 

Kayak Morning

Long Point

The Sun, The Sun

Mallards

Great Blue

Same Guy

The smoke slid in yesterday, late morning, making it uncomfortable to do anything outside, along with the 86° temperature. Fortunately, I was able to get in a good paddle before it arrived. I was back by 8:30, had a second cup of coffee with Evie as I finished the blog, and Evie chose the photos.

Because of the heat and because my bike is in the shop getting a tune-up, I stayed home and got a few things done. None was a big deal—mostly putting things away in the garage attic, something I should have done weeks ago. I also did a bit of weeding before the sun and heat arrived and carried deadfall and weeds up the hill to the woodpile. And that was about it for my day. Oh, yeah, I did a bit of watering and took the photos you can see here of the flowers in our garden, especially the hydrangeas along the side of the house.

Gooseneck

Geranium

Hydragea Bush

While I was putzing around, Evie was making the meat sauce for a couple of pans of pastitsio, which we'll be taking on our vacation to Topsail in ten days. She'll finish it this morning, freeze it, and pull it out when we leave.

I had lunch around 12:30 and began watching the fourth season of Dark Winds, loosely based on Tony Hillerman's novels, which I remember reading in the 1980s and 1990s. After lunch, I briefly napped, read some, and helped Evie clean up the kitchen before 3:00, when the World Cup game began.

The game was surprising because I expected a better showing from England. They did start out strong, scoring first. From then on, though, they stopped playing aggressively, sat back, and played defense, rarely crossing the center line. That allowed Argentina to spend the rest of the game firing at the goal, and eventually they scored twice to win 2–1. I don't know whether it was strategy or just what we so rarely understand in athletics: momentum. I also thought Argentina was the more skilled team, dominating possession 64% to 36%.

Afternoon Smoke

We ended up having BLTs for dinner, and they were great. Nothing beats bacon, tomato, toast, and mayo for lunch or dinner. We watched a couple more episodes of Department Q, and then, when Evie went to bed, I watched the Indiana Fever lose at home to Golden State, which surprised me. Caitlin Clark did not have a good game, and I'm beginning to lose interest in watching her because she continues to complain about every foul. What a baby.

I had seen enough and went to bed to read before turning out the light at 10:15.