Smoke

Even though I packed up the last of the Kickstarter backer boxes yesterday afternoon, I didn't make it to the post office today. We've been inundated with smoke and haze from the wildfires in Ontario and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It's been bad enough the State of Ohio downgraded its air quality alert to "Unhealthy" for everyone, which remains in affect until midnight on Friday.

My eyes have been itching and my nose stuffed up since GK and I took the Grandpuppy to his follow-up vet appointment yesterday morning. Nor did it get better when I made my post office run, got gas before the price jump, and bought a frame for a print I selected for Youngest Niece's birthday. Even though the last two days were supposed to be clear and sunny, the picture of haze during the Australian wildfires above gives you an idea of what's going on in Northwest Ohio right now. I may have to pull my pandemic masks back out if this continues.

The effects actually started with Saturday night's Strawberry Moon. When I took Princess Bella out for her last constitutional, the full moon actually had the hue of it's namesake.

So, I'm staying inside inside to work today. And keeping my fingers crossed that we get the rain we're supposed to on Sunday.

Look Out! Scary Weekend Ahead!

I avoid Black Friday like the plague.

It didn't used to be that way. In high school and college, my sister and I would pick up our maternal grandmother and hit the early sales. By early, it meant K-mart opened at 8 a.m. We'd hit a few other stores for some odds and ends. We ended the morning at Bob Evans for breakfast.

Now, you're lucky if someone doesn't pull a gun on you while you camp out in front of some store or customers don't trample you to death while you're trying to unlock your employer's main doors.

Unfortunately, Black Friday is not the only "crazy people" day in our part of the country.

But we need to make the trek up to Detroit to deliver my father-in-law's car to a buyer. (He's nearly ninety and voluntarily stopped driving for which we are profoundly grateful.)

Darling Husband suggested instead of taking the car up on Friday, why don't we do it on Saturday?

I just stared at him.

"What's wrong with Saturday?"

"Ohio State and Michigan."

"Oh, shit," he muttered. Along with a few other words I don't feel comfortable repeating in public.

And I'm the one with the potty mouth.

You see, our little town is on the route that a large number of folks from Columbus, Ohio, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, take to each other's stadiums. Since Michigan is hosting the game, we'd be sharing the road north for a good chunk of the way with pumped up, and possibly drunk, Buckeyes fans.

So, despite my Black Friday fears, and if you're reading this on Friday morning, we're heading up north to deliver the car.

I just wish I knew where my Michigan University sweatshirt is.