cthenn

How about this turn around huh? Smoke has left us for now, and the weather is turning downright fall-like. I couldn't stop staring at the sky on Sunday, seeing how BLUE it was. It's been so long.

Cyclist0108

Our smoke (on the coast) has been replaced with cold fog and drizzle. But it is nice to be able to breathe again. Everyone in my family except me is diagnosed with mild asthma, so it is great to be rid of the smoke.

cthenn

Enjoy it while you can...

Cyclist0108

Given the horrors being experienced by those directly involved, I hate to complain, but the air quality in the Bay Area and even south to Big Sur is quite poor, and as bad as I have ever seen.

https://www.purpleair.com/map#9.51/36.565/-121.9355

cthenn

Guess I'm stuck inside this weekend... The sky is brown and the sun is red. AQI is extremely hazardous... No way I'm going out in this, and there's no escape anywhere in the immediate area. Guess this is our new normal, record setting fires that turn the state into a toxic wasteland for weeks at a time.

DiabloScott

It wasn't terrible. Visibility was low, my throat's a little sore, but my lungs didn't hurt.

My favorite perspective:


North Peak from observation deck:

djkashuba 

11-10-18 Sonoma Coast.



Sonoma Coast by djk762, on Flickr

Darth Lefty 

Cyclist0108

I worry about the future.

caloso

Pavol Stromcek

I don't mean to trivialize the unspeakable devastation and tragedy that these fires are causing, but if this is now going to be a normal, yearly occurrence, I'm going to have to invest in an indoor trainer. The air in Oakland has been consistently awful since Thursday afternoon last week.

spdntrxi

I was down in Monterey this past weekend and the Marathon was wife entered in was called off (the night before)...

bikingshearer 

I'm sorry to sound like a scold, but considering what this smoke represents - people dying, an entire not-insubstantial town completely destroyed, personal and economic devastation for many thousands of people - posting about having to think about getting an indoor trainer or having a marathon cancelled are not appropriate things to be complaining about out loud, even in a cycling-related forum. Thinking those things, even being privately upset about them, is fine. But a sense of proportion, decency and empathy means you ought to keep those sentiments away from public consumption.

I take that back. I'm not sorry to sound like a scold.

curbtender

Watched a guy and his daughter, stuck in a tent in Chico. Smoke is the least of his worries.

Cyclist0108

No one did what you are accusing them of. Please re-read.

joesch

Very appropriate pick and good hear rather than bike ride in BA

Pavol Stromcek

You know, I started my post by saying I'm not intending to trivialize the tragedy and devastation that people are experiencing in the fires. It's an unspeakable level of loss and I can't even begin to imagine the horror that people in the fires are living through. Yes, I know not being able to do things outdoors because of smokey air is an absolutely trivial matter compared to losing one's family, friends, home, or business, and I'd give everyone here on this forum the benefit of the doubt that they feel the same.

That said, the poor air quality is, in fact, a condition we in the Bay and other areas are dealing with right now, and it impacts all of us. It's something that's likely to be an increasingly regular occurrence in the future, and I feel like we have to be able to discuss it without trivializing or being insensitive to what's happening to people who are caught in the fire's path. The local news is talking about it, with reports specifically dedicated to the poor air quality and how it's affecting various people, so I feel like we should be able to discuss it as well.

Am I wrong? Maybe we need a new thread titled NorCal Air Quality, since this thread title references the fires? Or, should we really refrain from discussing air quality completely, out of respect for those who are directly impacted by the fires?

If I'm wrong, tell me and I'll shut up about it and edit my earlier post.

blt

No, you're not wrong.

General rule, don't complain to the people closer to the center of the circle of pain than what you are in, but unless you know there is a participant in the thread who is closer to the center of the circle of pain than you are, it is OK to gripe, especially when you acknowledge that others have it worse.

My son had emotionally difficult things last week, he could talk to his parents about his stress, while recognizing that what he dealt with was nothing compared to what others dealt with. Last Wednesday night, within an hour of the Borderline Bar and Grill shooting, he hears about it, he knows friends of his hang out there, he knows that friends were there (he wisely texts his parents at midnight so we know he wasn't there before we even hear about it). He had to worry for awhile about whether any of this friends were killed, and know that friends of his went through the nightmare experience of being at the Borderline Bar and Grill. But he was safe at home, and in the end, his friends were all OK (although some of them have a lasting trauma from being there). He can't talk to his friends who were there about the stress he felt, because it was nothing compared to their stress, and really nothing compared to the friends and family of those killed. He feels bummed, and he can talk to his parents or friends back in the bay without being scolded for being bummed. Then Thursday night/Friday morning, he ends up 1/3 mile from the mandatory evacuation zone for the Woolsey fire, seeing flames that fierce winds are blowing his direction. He and his housemates wisely decide to bail at 2 a.m. to sleep somewhere safer. Stressful, but by the next day the winds had shifted to make the homes of others in danger, and he lost nothing. Compared to what others experienced, it was trivial, and he knows that. Still, the experience wasn't nothing to him.

I don't scold him for feeling the stress of the week, and he fully recognizes that others in those two days had far worse fate than him. I let him talk about his feelings, and they are legitimate, especially when he recognizes that others had far worse fate than him.

The poor air quality isn't a joke. It is a danger to health. An office mate is complaining about the air quality, while her best friend has lost her job and house in Paradise and is sleeping in a truck with her husband in Chico, since her husband needs to keep working at his job in Chico to support the family. My office mate knows that the air quality is nothing compared to what her friend is going through, and I don't scold her for complaining about the air quality.

I could go on, but no, you're not wrong.

bikingshearer 

Okay, I need to not hit "send" when it is late, I am tired, and I have blurted out my first, more or less stream-of-consciousness response to something without the benefit of more careful thought. Some of the posts hit me in a way that was not the intent of the authors. My apologies. Continue to bash me if you feel like it - I have a pretty thick skin - and take this mea culpa for whatever you think it is worth.

Pavol Stromcek

Thanks for such a thoughtful post. I agree - I think if we make sure to acknowledge that there are people affected by the same broader problem who are in a significantly more dire situation, we can discuss our much less dire, but still serious problem without being insensitive to those who have it much worse.

What you said about how the air quality is no joke and a danger to our health is spot on. It really is a serious problem, and people all over the Bay Area are talking about it. When you have local air quality experts telling everyone to stay indoors and suggesting that several consecutive days of unhealthy air quality like what we've been having this past week can be as harmful as smoking a cigarette every day for a year - even if you're indoors the majority of the time - that's not something to take lightly.

It's certainly been tough with our son - who is 19 months old and has loads of energy - to keep him cooped up indoors all this time, and trying to find indoor play areas that aren't completely mobbed, since he can't go outside to the local parks. Yet, he's too young to understand why. Again, a trivial problem compared to those whose town has been pretty much erased from the map, but it's still the kind of issue a lot of folks here are dealing with.

Pavol Stromcek

No worries. I probably could have been clearer in my original post about acknowledging how exponentially more severe the problems are for people who are in or closer to the fire's path, and that I didn't mean to downplay that.

curbtender

Thought Imight be able to get above the haze in the Berkeley hills, no chance. At least i was the only dummy out there . Nimitz Nike site.

cccorlew

I'm very aware my smoke issues in Contra Costa, even though they've reached unhealthy levels, pale in compassion to those who lost homes and loved ones. But that doesn't mean I'm unaffected. There's always someone in the world having a rougher time than I am. I'm sympathetic, but I still get to be sad I can't ride, and affected on my ride to work.( It's now hit over 300 and my college is closed today, so I don't need to worry about my commute.)

Siu Blue Wind

@cccorlew I'm glad that you have a mask (press the metal thing so that its snug around the bridge of your nose) but the minimum required is the N95 mask. It has that little vent thing. Lowes and Home Depot are out of them but Kelly Moore Paints is giving them out free. The one closest to you is 1014 Fitzuren Road, Antioch. 925 778-1359

Joe Bikerider

I went out today, into the murk as it were. I had the choice of sitting here and watching the teenager play Fortnight all day or get out and around. He was enjoying his day off because of the smoke. I only went about 5 miles, first to my credit union for some cash, the really nice lady there actually gave me a face mask and I wore it down the street until out of sight. Too restrictive. Then at the library I had a nice joke with the clerk about the trade off of spending my life in jail for murder as opposed to getting out into the smoke. So I got out, and the MUP was really empty and I guess I feel fine now so there it is. Hope you all are well.