How about this weather? Or - smoke gets in my eyes. And sinus's. And Lungs.

 Blessings Darlings!

Those of you in the US, since we now have the 'usual' west coast fires going as well as the smoke from the Canadian fires, how are you coping with the air?  And for those of you in the southern heat dome - how are you coping with the heat?

I was going to do a lot in the garden today.  But the air quality is so bad - in the Red Warning zone, halfway to the Purple Warning.  So I masked up to put laundry on the clothes line and water the potted plants, then retired to the indoors.  The 'haze' is visible everywhere - making the landscape hard to see.  The Blue Ridge Mountains are totally obscured, and they should be visible.  The weather service does not figure particulates (I don't know about Ozone) into their 'visibility' figure.  I'd say it's under a mile here.  Weather service says it's 5.5 miles.

Mind you, I was out in this muck all yesterday, because my job requires it.  So I spent all yesterday breathing it.  That was not fun. At least today my eyes aren't burning.

I don't know what the air quality is here in the house.  The windows were open late yesterday afternoon 'to let the cool air in', so I'm sure it got bad.  

Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out what 'minimal use of air conditioning' is.  It's only 87 out side, and the dew point is low.  The AC was at 80F until 5 pm, then I turned it down to 79 because it felt stuffy even with ceiling fans.  We don't have an air purifier, alas, the only air filter here is the AC (or running the HVAC on 'fan only'.) 

Now, intellectually I know that the setting on my AC isn't a big impact on the environment.  Manufacture of all the 'stuff' is, so buying less stuff is a more effective action.  But we're living in the third stage of collapse, and, fundamentally, I'm going to have to learn to live without AC in the future.  Working outside in summer heat (and smoke) will help my body adjust to dealing with temperatures (even as it damages my lungs, right.)  

And even tho' I'm FAR from the highest consumer of ice in my household, I'm still using it while feeling that it is a First World Indulgence.  And keeping my ice water in an insulated cup (bought used.  Just like almost all my clothes other than my undies, shoes, and socks.)

But I'd still wish I could sleep in mid 70 temperatures, with a dew point of under 60.

Frondly, Fern

The Crows Spoke Again.

Blessings Darlings!

I don't know if crows act as messengers from the Goddess who has me collared, but there are these times when ... well, they can certainly be omens.  So far, always omens about crap going down at work.  It happened again yesterday.

I was just driving in to the job.  The Chubby Hubby and Spawn, who had been out in the car earlier, had left me an almost empty gas tank, so I went to fill it before work rather than after.  Snow was predicted, after all. 

All along the drive there were crows, in abnormal numbers, in abnormal places.  I figured it was just due to the oncoming snow - just crows being crows, and confirming the weather report.  In fact I felt a bit smug, as I reviewed that I was filling the gas tank, had pretty new tires, my radiator was finally fixed, I'd replaced a burnt out turn signal bulb myself, etc.

Well.

Thirty minutes after I got to work, or no reason, the damn 'fire suppressant system' goes off.  Green chemical pours down on the grills and my stove (where I had a large batch of vegetable soup started), mist from it goes EVERYWHERE. 

The rest of my time there was spent cleaning up toxic chemicals.  Oh joy, oh rapture.

Maybe I should have warned the managers when I got in. 

Frondly, Fern

Too Windy to be Green

Blessings Darlings!

The wind is killing me today.  I'm one of those traditional types who prefers to do laundry on Mondays ... and dry it on the line.  But in winter/early spring, I can only get one load dry on the line on a GOOD day.  So I end up doing laundry pretty much every available day of the week!

So I hung today's laundry - linens.  Big top and bottom sheets, which catch the wind.  And boy is there wind today!  I had to come in to the house to put gloves on, because the wind chill while handling wet laundry was killing me.  In the 2 hours since I hung the laundry I've been out there twice to recapture what has blown off the line (and I put a LOT of clothes pins on each piece) and re-hang them.

And the wind hasn't just been screwing around with me on that.  The newspapers and cardboard I used last week to help smother grass in the area I plan to garden in have had their protective heavy mulch blown off - I've been chasing after them in my 3 acre yard (and I think I see some in my neighbor's yard as well). 

The weather folks promise that the wind will die tonight ... if I make it that long.  And if we get the promised snow storm on Wednesday, that will help settle the garden, but with rain starting on Tuesday and the storm on Wednesday, those are at least two more days I can't hang laundry. 

I'm going to get a nice HOT cup of tea now.

Frondly, Fern

Hoping for Mud Season

Blessings, Darlings!

I mentioned "mud season" in last week's Imbolc post.  For those of you with lawns rather than pasture areas, let me explain this a bit.  Mud is what you get when you combine pastures with animals (especially hooved animals) with rain.  Mud season is when you have a spring with normal rains.

Unfortunately, most of the US (and a goodly part of the rest of the world) hasn't been having normal mud seasons.  The serious drought continues across the US. Worldwide, humans used more wheat than we harvested (and in the the US, most of the wheat is winter wheat, which relies on spring rains, rather than winter wheat which relies on summer rains).

While the area I'm in isn't having a current drought problem, my area isn't the breadbasket of the nation/world.  That blighted area of the Great Plains IS that breadbasket.  This has been going on for almost a year, and the weather pattern does not seem to be changing at all.

Rains.  Long and slow and renewing.  We needs it.

Frondly, Fern

Fire Protection, Redux

Blessings Darlings!

As many of you recall, last August/September there were some terrible fires in the Texas region, brought on in part by severe drought.    Some Pagans on Facebook got together to fight the fires by trying to get a hurricane to hit the area, as I noted here.

They never updated their Facebook page to say if they felt that they succeeded, or if they didn't how to do magic better.  I'll do that for them right here because I'm nice that way.

Here's the USGS Drought Monitor summary for last year.  It seems to be missing the last few months but DOES include the ends of July and September - the time the group was working in.  What happened? The drought continued to increase.  Here's the summary for the first 12 weeks of 2012, so you can compare the beginning of 2012 to the beginning of 2011.  What happened? The drought is worse now than it was early last year.  I'm having trouble finding any archives of the fires from last year to link to, sorry about that.  As I recall ... the number and acreage involved increased during September.

I am NOT here snarking about trying to do big magic. I am all for that. I AM pointing out that the group didn't like me bringing up how they were going to measure success or failure to the point of refusing to consider doing any measurements.

Looks to me like the magic failed.  Just like the magic my coven did for "Peace" during the Olympics .... and within a week Russia and Georgia were at war.  Not all magic works, and when it doesn't - heck, even when it DOES work - you need to look at what did and did not work.  That is how you LEARN.  That is how your magic IMPROVES.

Have a few extra bucks and want to improve your magic?  Pick up one of those "Spell a Day" books published by Llewellyn, and do the spells .... and look into why they call for this, that, or the other 'ingredient'.  Or look at the goal and make up and do your own spell for that.  Yes, a spell a day. Just like if you were learning piano or martial arts you'd practice daily.  Just like a baby learning to walk practices and practices and practices.

Go forth and be wonderful.

Frondly, Fern

Hunker Down

Blessings, Darlings!

We got 9.5 inches of snow yesterday.  The Washington DC area we used to live in got a bit less (more rain there).  Judging by the TV, the only news in the world is the snow we got here.  Never mind the revolution that seems to be going on in Egypt, the issues in Tunisia and Yemen, etc.

Anyway.... the news is full of stories about folks who were stranded in their cars for 4 to 12 hours trying to get home.  My son watched, then admitted he was thinking about what HE would do.  We again discussed the time I was working at Credit Counseling when snow hit and roads turned extremely icy.  I watched skidding and accidents from my window, watched the streets clog, etc. When it was finally time to leave ... I didn't.  I stayed put.  I stayed in the office, had a cup of tea, read the book or magazine I always had with me.  I was warm, dry, comfortable, not doing white-knuckled ice driving.

By 8 pm, the roads had finally been salted, the built-up traffic had evaporated from the direction I was going to go, and I headed out.  I drove slowly, an it took me a few extra minutes to make the drive.  But it was a pretty calm drive, aside from not being able to see lane lines in one area.

Being able to shelter in place - no matter where you are - is a necessity.  As my experience, and the experience of the poor folks who were stuck on highways yesterday, shows.  Going out into weather or other SHTF (Shit Hits The Fan) situations is usually NOT a good idea.  Wait it out THEN go out.

To do this you need some level of supplies with you.  In this case, they were in my desk at my office: tea bag, book, snacks, cell phone, water, etc.  I also had a candle and matches so I'd have been okay  had power gone out.  I knew the gas tank in my car was full, my tires were good, and I had more emergency supplies (more food, more water, tools, blanket, etc) in the car.  Had I been stranded in the car overnight, I'd have been okay, even if I had to use the 'can with a lid' potty - tho' in that last case I'd have whined a heck of a lot!