156 meanwhile, in maskworld

It is amazing how much wearing a mask helps with the wildfire smoke. (And, we shall thus be reminded, with Cov2.) A couple times on my walk yesterday, I kinda forgot why I was wearing it, outside of the usual coronavirus reasons. 

Once, a guy came out of a restaurant and said to his buddy, "it smells good out here." I had no idea what he was talking about. I thought  maybe the restaurant was cooking something? Then I took off my mask for a drink of water, and got hit by the smell.

The best approximation I can come up with is walking through a campground in the evening, when everyone has a fire going. This smoke is definitely thick enough to stink up your clothes.

This was in the afternoon. From my experience, anything over 100 you notice. And at 2-300, you struggle.

This is our neighborhood. The smoke is very visible in the air. Not "turn the sun orange" visible, we're past that. We're into "turn the view white."

The afternoon breeze fortunately did kick in and help a bit, but I stayed indoors, windows closed (we don't have AC in SF, we have windows), and air filter humming.

Meanwhile, in Florida, Deb's dad is hanging in there. She's been able to see him twice. Apparently, the get up of PPE you have to wear is quite hot, she said she quickly sweat through her t-shirt underneath.

And many, many doctors and nurses have been wearing that stuff every day, all day, for five months now. 

Thank you all for the good thoughts. He's been off the tube now for two days, and the doctors are cautiously surprised how well he's doing. They decided to keep him in ICU for now. It's not "get your hopes up" time, but it is excellent that Deb may get to see him again today.

Meanwhile, in the stageplay put on by Texas every four years.

There was a decided lack of commentary, conventioneers, or even advertisements.

There were definitely scripts.


There were cool cats.

There were feel good moments.

And there were scare tactics.

On all sides.

Meanwhile, in the blazing hills.

We're about a thousand underpaid prisoners from our usual fire fighting capability.

Because the state sent some people home early from jail because otherwise, they would be paying for their healthcare while they suffered Covid-19, which we can't seem to stop from running nuts in our "correctional" facilities.

Meanwhile, at home.

Yeah, so, how are we doing here? Let's see... People dying? Check. Testing unreliable? Check. Economy fucked? Check. Young people suicidal? Check.

But hey, Wall Street is doing a-ok.

Enough meanwhile. Let's go back to hopeful for a big finish.

The train is making a comeback. Muni is reopening the underground next week. 

And this guy is running for president. As often as Biden has been solidly in the middle of neoliberalism, he's got the train thing going for him.

And all these folks.

And although the crowd might have been underwhelming...

Jennifer Hudson never is!

I don't know why, but no actress can make me cry like her. She gets me every time.

 
Please?



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