An Encounter I Walked Away From...

The bus service in Boulder is very different on the weekend, as opposed to weekdays.  Saturday services begin two hours later, ans Sunday service begins three hours later.  Early and late, both days, there is only service once an hour; service ends much earlier on the weekend, and on Sunday, some routes don't run at all.  Route times also change quarterly, according to ridership levels, so when I start working at a place where I haven't been in six months, and I need to travel to the client's home twice I day, I have to try and gauge my first weekend travels carefully.
  Yesterday was my first Saturday in six months traveling to a specific home.  In he morning, I feed the fish in the back yard pond; release the hens from their coop, gather eggs, spread chicken scratch in various places, and clean the coop of overnight droppings; then I feed and water the cats inside, let the cats out for the day, and fill their water bowls.  In the evening, I put the hens into the coop, check for eggs hidden around the yard, and get the cats in for the night.
   Knowing the regular buses wouldn't run early enough for me to do morning chores, I walked to the Hop stop, which started running at 7 a.m.  I figured if I caught the first Hop bus, I could then make the connection with the first Skip bus at 7:09.  Nope.  The Hop picked me up at 7:05, we stopped at the next stop and another woman boarded with her service dog; it took her 3 minutes to get settled into her seat so the bus could start moving again.  She walked past me to find a seat (I was the only person on the bus, other than the driver).  This woman reeked of musty, sour sweat and both cigarette and marijuana smoke.  I almost gagged as she walked by.  Her service dog looked like a Yorkshire terrier cross, and was wearing a little red coat, but without any other identifying info.  As we traveled along, her odor permeated the entire bus.  I saw the bus driver glance at the woman a few times in the mirror, but she didn't say anything.
   I was very happy when my stop at Broadway and Spruce came.  I cheerfully hopped off the bus and called, "Thank you!" to the driver.  Then I realized the driver was lowering the bus so the other woman could disembark, too.   The woman and her dog followed me to the Skip bus stop.  By that time, it was 7:15, and the next Skip wouldn't come until 7:43.  I sat on the bench, and the woman sat beside me.  I got up and moved to sit on a raised flower bed.  After a few minutes, the dog started tugging at it's leash, and the woman got up, and allowed the male dog to mark everything nearby.  Then she allowed the dog to jump up onto the flower bed and approach me.  When the dog lifted it's leg to urinate on me, I pushed it away and stood up.  She laughed and said, "He likes you."  I said, "Well, that's fine, but that doesn't give him the right to pee on me," and I moved several feet away.  She asked if I was afraid of strangers.  I told her that I have COPD and that smoke will make me have an asthma attack, and that, because she smelled of smoke, I needed to stay a distance away from her.  I pulled out my book, and tried to read, but she kept talking to me and inching closer.
  I looked up when I started to cough and choke, and discovered that she had lit up a doobie the size of a cigar - then she offered me a few hits, telling me it would make me feel better and relax.  I literally ran several feet away from her and told her, "No.  Thank you."  In between puffs, she told me she, too, had COPD, and named five prescriptions that she takes to help her breathe.  She finally ground the roach out on her thumbnail, put it back into a box, then pulled out a filtered cigarette, lit it up, and inhaled deeply, twice. Then she started hacking horribly and coughing up and spitting out phlegm.  I started to gag from her spitting sputum everywhere.  Then she wanted me to "slap" her "back for five minutes" to help her clear her congestion.
   I was a coward.  I didn't reply.  I couldn't because I was retching so much and so hard.  I was lucky not to lose my breakfast.  I walked away and walked the rest of the way to the hens, fish, and cats.   -  In all honesty, I hope I never see this particular person ever again....   

Current Wildfires in the United States

Boulder, Colorado has had "smokey" air for the past week.  The sky is hazy and you smell smoke as soon as you step outside or open your windows.  Even though we had good late snows, the prolonged heat and dry breezes and winds suck the moisture out of everything.  We have three plants on the balcony that I soak every morning, until water runs into the containing saucer, but they are dry as a bone the following morning.
    We have frequent small fires that our local firefighters quench as fast as they can.  Yesterday someone tossed a burning cigarette butt into the dry brush near a trail head on Flagstaff Mountain.  It burned 5 acres, but was under control, and then out quickly.  During the summer we have small fires like this on a daily basis in almost every county of the state - and sometimes there are six or more that have started in each county every day.
   I've been having problems breathing with my asthma and COPD, and am not out walking as much as I should be - but, I can breathe much easier staying inside with the humidifier on.  In any event, I decided to do some research on what is burning where in my country.  I have left out of my information burns that were scheduled to clear underbrush and fires that are less than 50 acres in area.  Even so, the number of wildfires and the areas that have burned, or are now burning is astonishing to me.
   Out west, eleven states have wildfires, and the Okeefenokee Swamp in Georgia is still smoldering.  Here is a list of states with fires, and the acreage involved:
Alaska  -         69,814 acres
Arizona  -      171,718 acres
California -      24,922 acres
Colorado -       34,411 acres
Idaho  -          191,643 acres
Montana -        10,447 acres
Nevada -        227,396 acres
New Mexico    81,220 acres
Utah  -              72,252 acres
Washington -        700 acres
Wyoming -         1,962 acres
The Okeefenokee Swamp in Georgia has   152, 515 acres  that are burning or smoldering.

Altogether, that adds up to 1,039,000 acres burning.  One million thirty-nine thousand acres equals 1,623.43 square miles.  The state of Rhode Island is a little larger than 1,000 square miles.  The state of Delaware is only 330 square miles greater in area than the areas currently on fire in the western United States and Georgia.
   That, to me, is mind-boggling.

Bronchitis Bites

I have COPD - better known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.  Both of my parents were heavy smokers from before my birth until I was in my teen-age years.  My sister and I used to get reported to teachers, deans and principals because we reeked of cigarette smoke.  Neither of us have ever smoked, but everything in our house smelled of cigarette smoke - we could take a bath, wash our hair, dry ourselves, put on clean clothes, and still smell like cigarette smoke.  Our towels, wash cloths, clothes, sheets and beds, curtains, and furniture all retained that "wonderful" odor of tobacco and nicotine.  Because I breathed all of that stuff for a good part of my life, I ended up with COPD.  I don't have normal lung function.  I have chronic sinusitis, I have chronic bronchitis, I have chronic asthma.  I've dealt with this for nearly 60 years, so I don't blame my parents.  It's just something I have to deal with.
  My biggest problem now comes from where I live.  I walk five miles each day, no matter what - and today it was extremely difficult.  Boulder is located more than a mile above sea level; the air is very dry; and when it gets cold here, it gets cold.  In the eleven years that i have been here, I have found that I cannot step outside if the temperature is less than 15 degrees (F).  My lungs go into spasms and I simply cannot get enough air to breathe.  Since I walk dogs, and am out in the weather, this creates a difficulty.  .....
  Anyway, my first big case of bronchitis jumped on me yesterday - I have lungs full of fluid, sinuses full of fluid, a sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, coughs full of "junk," and aches and pains.  Other than taking care of my charges - cats and dogs - I'm drinking tons of fluid, taking hot showers under fresh eucalyptus sprigs, and I've already gotten sick of chicken broth and chicken noodle soup.  Beatrice suggested I put Vicks Vaporub on the bottom of my feet each night when I go to bed.  We'll have to see what this winter brings.
   I had made the comment to Bea that I thought we might need to purchase some thermal-lined curtains for the sliding glass doors in our living room, and for our bed rooms.  She didn't think so, since the buildings were just completed in June and are supposed to be very "green" and environmentally friendly.  After the other night, when we had a low of 28 degrees, she said we needed to get out the measuring tapes and write down the dimensions of our double-paned glass areas because she could feel waves of cold air coming from them....   That's on the agenda for tomorrow.