I woke up with a sore back. Chainsaw work hadn’t completely done me in but it hadn’t helped. Shifting logs into my tractor bucket had been even worse.
I wanted to go motorcycle camping.
Sleepily, I looked at the rising sun. It was blood red. I stepped outside. I didn’t smell smoke. The sun looked like we’d just been nuked and it was refracting though the particulate of blasted cities.
The air was still and not too hot. It was unpleasantly humid. The sky had puffy white clouds. They’d build throughout the day, but given the cool-ish temperature I doubted they’d develop into thunderheads. The dead unmoving air was unlikely to bring relief or new weather.
Sipping my morning coffee I checked the internet. Everything I read was counter to what I’d observed.
A government site claimed my local air was crisp and clean despite mapping a smoke plume that covered a huge area (including my house). It pushed damn near to the Atlantic. I tried to square that in my head. Would particulate in the stratosphere make the sun glow blood red while leaving air at my level clean?
I have a more cynical theory. I was detecting bullshit. How often does the government tell the truth? What are the odds that air monitoring stations report exactly what they measure? Are readings tied to funding, to pollution regulations, to something I cannot fathom but would recognize if I see it? Was the desirable “all is well” air quality reading similar to other facts bureaucracies provide? Was it “seasonally adjusted”? Was it “smoothed”? Would it be quietly “restated” closer to the truth at some later date when nobody cares?
Man that’s dark. It sucks to think like that. Yet, how many lies have we been fed and for how long? If I’m sure they’ve cooked the Consumer Price Index, why would I assume they’re angels about air quality reporting?
I went back outside and looked at the sky. It looked polluted as shit to me. I’m sensitive to such things. Probably a bad time to go camping.
Back inside I consulted the weather report.
[Warning, an aside follows.] I like weather but it was among many subjects I carefully avoided throughout my career. All those chaotic air masses could keep a nerd like me busy forever. But it’s only fun if you’re truly trying to understand the mystery of our world. That has little to do with job prospects. Most people think “weather person” is the cute girl yammering in front of a green screen. I’ll never have the “assets” she has. Being a science guy could I happily play with statistical models behind the scenes? Probably not. I’d spend forever learning air masses and rotations and vortexes and then I’d be evaluated by someone who thinks Greta Thunberg is a genius. I’d be passed over for promotion because I’m a white male bastard. I’d be dragged away from calculus about clouds and forced into struggle sessions about pronouns and climate change. I chose to remain an amateur. I think it was a good call. [End reflective moment.]
The prediction was more dire than my amateur guesses. Shit was supposed to build all afternoon and maybe let loose with thunderstorms just before sunset. Fair ’nuff. Who am I to guess thunderhead buildup less than some model? Oddly there was a second and third wave of potential rain predicted; one around midnight and another in pre-dawn. How? I guess the wind was about to change. I hadn’t looked at satellite images. My view only went as far as the polluted horizon.
It would be a rainy night. Probably a bad time to go camping.
Then again…
…rain is why we have tents.
It was polluted (maybe), going to rain (possibly), and my back was sore. Tough shit, I was going. Hastily, I packed my shit.
As before the CPAP took up far too much space. I added a tiny tarp and a rain jacket. This pushed my bike load beyond what I thought was ideal. I didn’t have rope, should I need to erect the tiny tarp I’d be SOL? I’d figure something out. I thought about my SpotX. I’d left it in my shop. I didn’t feel like fetching it and I was going a place that was “super tame” anyway.
My last act at the house was to reserve a campsite with AC. I grumpily accepted the extra fee. And rolled out.
Sore back, pollution, rain… never let minor risks cloud your heart to the big picture. I’d be fine.
More later…
