2026: Sunday July 19: Apocalyptic

I'm kind of mad that I have to live through the apocalypse. I know, I know, the past wasn't always great and in fact was usually much less than great for most people. But twenty-first century politics, economic inequality, the info-tech hellscape, and the damn climate - it's hard to stare all the awfulness in the face at once. This week it was inescapable. 

That's wildfire smoke drifting down on the jet stream from burning northwestern Ontario. This never used to happen, but it has been three or four years in a row now when summer in Binghamton just goes smoky. 

At an Air Quality Index of 163 it is both very unpleasant and very unhealthy to be outside. Everything gets eerie and weird, like we're in a days-long partial eclipse. It smells acrid, like the neighbors are burning tires. We shut all the windows and hung out in the one room in the house with an air conditioner. I canceled my morning run. And my morning walk. And we weren't even in the worst of it. God knows how anyone in, say, Michigan, functioned. Most of it has dispersed now, as the weather pattern moved, but we're still not great and even today there were people walking in the park with masks. 

Ella and I sent photos back and forth. 

One of the best views of our valley is from the Target parking lot. It is a great place to see sunsets and watch storms roll in, so I stopped there on my way home from writing group. This was actually after the worst of it. Maybe I should have taken my time to set up this shot without the giant AT&T sign, but also maybe that is part of the story? 

This is either Brooklyn looking towards Manhattan or the other way around. The reason I can't tell is because you should be able to see the New York City skyline in the background. Instead there is just haze and the teeniest tiniest orange sun hanging there. Ok now I think about it, Ella took this in the afternoon which means the sun is in the west, so you definitely should be able to see the skyscrapers of Manhattan. But you can't. 

Now excuse me, I have to run out and buy some coca-cola so I can make a fernet con coca to drink during the Spain-Argentina World Cup final this afternoon. It's not that I am a fan of Argentina over Spain, or even that I like coke, but what am I supposed to drink? Sangria? Horchata? Gazpacho? But I do have a bottle of Fernet-Branca in the house and I've developed a taste for it. Here is one of our favorite cocktails to use it: 

I keep notes.