How's the Air Up There?

A: Not very good. We Blame Canada. No, really - we do.

It’s summer time here. Pools, Ice Cream, Fun and Sun. All these things are great, yes?

Want to know what’s not great? Crappy air quality.

This air quality is horrible for BW and her asthma as it means she has to stay in all day on the couch trying to breathe. We’ve got the air conditioning so cold we’re wearing sweaters and we have 3 industrial air cleaners going at full tilt. These help - I’ve got the air quality inside to about 10. Which is much better than the 150ish it is outside but still not optimal.

I guess this is the new normal. I don’t remember getting hit with air quality last summer but I do remember 2023 so I guess this is now a thing.

I mean, this is serious. How dare the Canadians mess our summer plans? The nerve.

At least we’ve got our politicians looking after us:

US lawmakers write to Canada to complain that its wildfire smoke is spoiling summer

Those crazy Canucks allowing their smoke to go into OUR air. Can you imagine?

I would like to think that our representatives in Congress are smarter than actually taking the time to complain about this, but hey we voted for them so we get what we get and we don’t get upset.

Meanwhile, the Canadians are busy you know - fighting the fires instead of starting a letter campaign.

Sigh.

If only we had a dome to protect us.

That said, we hope the letters work and the Canadians get their act together so BW can breathe again.

Enough about air quality for now….

Fun in the Fog

The child and I decided we had to do something after yesterday’s lazy day so BW suggested at lunch that we go to the Grand Island Fun Center for some mini golf and go carting as we had to do something.

So, after lunch we went. First, Mini Golf.

This course was bigger than I thought. After living here for a dozen years and driving by for years today was the day we finally went and the course is a full 18 holes of fun!

They asked us if we wanted a score card but I figured we were not counting score today and I was right. Her technique is to keep hitting the ball until it goes in the cup.

THEN and only then would it be my turn. She was very interested in the surrounding and bridges more than the game itself but you wouldn’t know it as she got two hole-in-two’s which is a better showing than dad had. I haven’t played golf in a long, long time so that’s my excuse.

I was warned many many many times about the last hole where the cup is not a cup, but a pipe where the ball goes back to wherever they go to when you’re done your game and this mystery was talked about on more than one occasion while we played.

After golf we cooled off in the arcade for a bit and she wanted to spend the $1.75 she had as credits when she went here for a birthday party earlier this summer. At first she wanted to play a shooter game but I managed to steer her to the claw game full of rubber ducks that stated that you play until you win.

Besides, we’re an expert at claw games because we made our own. It took a few tries but she finally won a rubber duck. In fact, I don’t know if the game was broken or somebody didn’t pick up their prizes but there were five ducks in there so she won the rubber duck lottery today.

We saved the best for the last: Go Carting! I think it’s been 40+ years since I went go-carting and now that we’ve been I’m good for another 40. She wasn’t scared but screamed the entire time we were on it. I guess it was a scream of delight? I dunno. We slid and raced around the track for five minutes which was more than enough and apparently just enough because the go-cart ran out of gas as we pulled up to park and rolled into our spot. Of course, running out of gas was the highlight for her.

I tried to get her to leave after the carting and go and get some real ice cream but she saw the over priced ice cream treats at the door so I was stuck. You can’t argue with a SpongeBob Ice Cream:

And that’s our day outside.

We came home and then a little later her friend came over and they had taped paper to their feet and were “skating” across our floor. They think of the silliest things.

After dinner we decided it was time to look for dog poo in the backyard. Any normal person would hate this task but not my child. She’s in charge of poo sighting and I’m in charge of the shovel.

She loves loves loves doing this. I will remember this because when she’s a little older this will be her job. She knows this and seems fine with it.

Tonight was relatively easy because we had done some activities and then there was her haul of rubber ducks to test out in the bathtub, so those ducks were lucky for the both of us.

It was later by the time she got to bed, but it’s summertime so whatever.

Now if only the Canadians would get their acts together with the fires so BW can start to breathe and we can have summer fun with her too.

Maybe I should write a letter.

Until Next Time,

TH and Co.