Friday, April 18, 2008

Donde esta Buenos Aires? Where's The Good Air?


An eerie light permeates the city. It looks like London fog, but it's warm here, and not humid. Invisible tendrils of smoke start getting inside of houses, buildings, apartments, stores, dance halls, theaters - just everywhere. For a moment you think you're having a Bette Davis flashback from her movie Dark Victory, when she starts losing her vision before she drops dead.
Today's paper assures us that the carbon monoxide levels are not life threatening, but of course babies and old people should be careful. We should not open our windows. We should run the AC and electric fans to circulate the air. We should wash our eyes with water, and drink lots of water. If you have asthma or allergies, you need to take your medicine and maybe stay inside (your own less smoky apartment). Bring in the pets too if you can, though apparently they adapt better than we do.
Last night OUR apartment was smoky! I had the AC and a fan on, and once in awhile I would spritz some floral scented Glade just to take my nose to a less stinky place.
Oh well. By Monday the winds are going to change and blow this out of here.
I found out the cattle farmers are burning Autumn grass to insure new growth in the Spring. Some of them are burning way more than usual, because they are going to switch from cattle to the more profitable soy bean crops. That and a couple of pyromaniacs playing with matches have made Buenos Aires vanish in a haze...

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