Burn, Baby, Burn

HURTIN' FOR CERTAIN: KOMO news headline from earlier today: "Smoky 'unhealthy' air is now worst in Seattle this century."

Beijing had better air quality than we did today.

See that purple dot - the one that's not just 'unhealthy, but 'very unhealthy' just south of Seattle and north of Renton? That's us.

My eyes feel like they're inside out, and my persistent cough is coupled with dagger pains in my chest. Fortunately, Christian and the kids are faring better, but it's not good for anyone. Even our poor dogs are a mess.

When a friend on Facebook posted this morning asking, "What can we do other than worrying about it?" I went off to the Google. 

Fortunately, I quickly landed on an answer that would help alleviate our air quality hopefully significantly, easily and cheaply, from the University of Michigan's medical school.

Check out this video (synopsis - get a GOOD furnace filter and put it in front of a box fan):

Fortunately, we have a box fan already, and so we just went to Home depot and bought the best 20x20-inch filter they had in stock. 

Back home, CJ carefully checked its air flow direction marking, and then mounted it on front of our box fan.

 And there you have it - almost instant air filter! So quick, so easy, and I could feel and smell a change immediately. Gosh, I wish we'd done this days ago.

In more unsightly news, I decided to dive into the furnace in our basement to check its filter for the first time since we moved in here. 

Um, yuck. 

 Needless to say, that has been replaced now, too.

In order to escape the heat and smoke, we purposely just wandered around retail establishments today (five in all, I think, says the woman who hates shopping). 

First stop was Walmart. I think we were there an hour and a half. A new record (and one I don't hope to break). 

We entertained ourselves with all sorts of things, including this freaky, rough looking Wookiee mask.
When CJ had it on, Bohemian Rhapsody came on over the PA, believe it or not. That meant some head banging was in order.

For whatever reason, you can't hear the song in the video, you're just going to have to feel it. ;)

We had a loooooooong, luxurious (cheap) lunch at IKEA (I asked the kids how long they thought we could stay there before we got kicked out), then hit Home Depot, Jo-Ann, and Value Village.

Fortunately, the skies are looking a bit better tonight. 

Gee, I'd *love* to be able to open our windows tomorrow.