I tell myself that walking is healthy for me and for H.o.p. Before he was born I used to walk miles. It was how I got around. Though sometimes in the summer it was difficult as the air quality here is horrible and it would give my asthma problems on hot days.
H.o.p. doesn’t like to walk. Playing is great. Walking is boring. But I try to get him out walking with me because I want to walk and of course he must come along. I try for a while and then give up and then try for a while again. I’m back to trying, telling him walking is great exercise.
It bothers me to lie like that.
We three times struggled to get out walking yesterday before it got too heated.
H.o.p., “It’s boring.”
Me, “Ah, c’mon, it’s healthy,” I lied, looking at the gray smoggy sky.
H.o.p. (after another few steps), “It’s hot and it’s boring.”
Me, “Ah, c’mon, look at all the buildings and architecture and stuff. Isn’t it interesting?” as we pass by several homeless lying sleeping on the sidewalk in the shade of a church, but H.o.p.’s used to that.
H.o.p. (after another few steps), “I’m going to melt and it’s boring.”
Me, “OK, OK, we’ll go back,” as I take a picture of an architectural detail at a bank I think is interesting, and then realize the security guard is eyeing me and is now staring at me hard and talking on her walkie talkie, and I scurry along becoming paranoid that I’m going to get in trouble for taking a photograph of a bank.
Anyway, here is Atlanta as viewed from Stone Mountain yesterday. Heaping serving of gray-brown photochemical soup. This is what I was saying was healthy. Twenty-five years ago and a county over you could escape the smog and breathe easier. No longer.
Below is Atlanta (twenty miles from Stone Mountain) on what is now considered to be a good visibility day. You can see how yesterday sucked air wise. It most often does throughout the summer.
Remember the fires in South Georgia earlier in the month? Which are now, thankfully pretty much out, but are still smoldering and could flare up again? Below is an image from one of those days when the fires were complicating the smog problem here and dropping soot everywhere.
By the end of today’s smoggy day, Marty and I both felt as though we were getting colds. But we’re not. It’s the smog, and even inside the apartment my eyes were itching after a week of this, for June 22 and 23 were red days for Atlanta, meaning very unhealthy for every one. The 24th and 25th were just “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups”, including children. We have extended periods of time in the summer when it’s like this. The 26th is supposed to be another such day.
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