I've lived in LA for most of my adult life, so I understand problems with air quality: the first thing I heard about LA from locals upon arriving were jokes about the smog around the downtown area; yup, there's definitely smog. This year has really challenged my limits on air quality: I usually walk blissfully unaware of the air and just walk outside and breathe murky air, but even I have been a little alarmed of the air quality around the U.S. this year, especially this summer. MJ is especially aware of the air quality problems and has a daily tracker of the air quality in our area;
When running around, I can feel the brisk morning area if it's fresh; it makes me want to run and give me more energy. When it's murky or dusty air though, I feel suffocated and my feet start dragging, like I don't want to be outside any more. And this is from a guy who craves going outside after a long day sitting at home working indoors; I'm like a dog whose owner hasn't walked him for a while, I start pawing at the door and looking outside frequently marveling at the outside world ready to step out of the cage......until it's revealed that outside the cage is what looks like poison gas almost as thick as fog, covering up almost everything, with even the sun struggling to break through the congestion. I haven't routinely worn a mask for awhile since Covid has cooled off a bit, but even I had to wear one (at MJ's urging) to wear a mask OUTSIDE (and take it off inside my home). This was of course the original purpose for wearing masks in some Asian countries like Beijing or Shanghai due to the pollution of such large urban centers, and only in the last 3 years did we associate it with a worldwide pandemic and wearing them indoors. Does it have a noticeable effect on my lungs as I'm breathing it microparticles? Not really, I don't feel it coursing through my airways or lungs or anything, but there's just a faint feel of throat itchiness and just that uneasiness of not feeling quite right.
The suffocating feeling I get is kind of similar to watching the TV show The Bear, now airing Season 2 on Hulu. It's a great show, but watching it causes stress because everything in the restaurant seems dirty and unruly, like I'm living in a unkempt room that no matter how much I try to clean up, there remains dirt and grime and something. MJ is definitely the one in our relationship who values things being clean in the sense that there are no germs or things touching the floor (I'm not as hung up on those), but I've found based on how I react to things that I'm actually the one who values orderliness and putting things away, or at least not "leaving them out." It's definitely caused a little friction in our relationship, as it's one of those things that has to be dealt with daily, it's not something like changing the engine oil (every several months) or taking a plane trip (every couple months) that can be forgotten for awhile, orderliness and cleanliness is an EVERY DAY, almost every hour issue. Just as much as I grimace and push back sometimes on the idea of having to use hand sanitizer after touching anything that's a solid object outside the home (doors, handles, clothing, everything), I'm sure MJ is tired of hearing me ask her to put away some of the items that she's not using or left out because she fell asleep and forgot about it.
What were we talking about again? Ah yes, the Bear, which is a great show which gave me the 789th reason never to own a restaurant, but also gave me nostalgia for living in downtown Chicago with mentions of River North and things only Chicagoans talk about. Never thought about air quality living in suburban Chicago, that's for sure; usually the freezing cold from the lakefront ice makes the air bitter cold enough to forget about what "air quality" is. And in the summer? Thunderstorms would hopefully blow away any of that residual dust lingering around after a heat wave.
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