Thursday, August 24, 2006

Where There's Smoke...

It is 2:15 Thursday afternoon.

We just got home from shopping in Spokane. We watched the smoke from the field burning all the way.

We live north of Lancaster on Ramsey. The burning fields were nowhere near.

The dog cannot go out. My eyes are burning. My throat is scratchy. The trees near our fence line are hazy from the smoke. That close. I am in our office. We closed it up bfore we left, around 12:30. It reeks.

The smoke is supposed to rise. Again, it has settled, right on top of us. I don't have asthma but I have neighbors who do.

The argument goes on. I was under the impression that government was to protect the well being of its citizens, not the profits of businesses in lieu thereof. That would not seem to be the case here.

The bottom picture is what covers our driveway, our sidewalks, our lawn and our decks. It blows around in the constant breeze. It is there for the breathing.

Or not.

3 comments:

Betty said...

Cough, cough. There's a patch of land near me that is preserved as a vestige of prairie land - it's only a few acres, with a couple of schools and some business next to it, and the city burns it off every year.There is nothing on that patch of ground that can't be found elsewhere, although some of our citizens swear some flowers and lizards are protected. And, they won't allow it to be sold, so it's now an oasis, shrinking every year.

Newt said...

I've only experienced that kind of burn once. It was out toward highway 5 in California. We called 911 to check on what was burning it was so bad and they said it was just the type of brush in the burn area, that what was burning was all natural, no chemicals, or plastics, or anything like that. But yikes. It was aweful. It does make it very hard to breath.

Idaho Dad said...

Hey, you're about two miles down Ramsey from me... We've been sitting in the backyard watching all that smoke blow out across the prairie. It hasn't come south toward us. I said to my kids, "Can you imagine how bad it would be to live in the path of all that smoke?" Now I can read your post to them so they know exactly how bad it is. Hope it stops soon!