While waiting out the smoke from the forest fire, I was able to walk and bike some without the smoke bothering me too much. Bicycle garb can be soaked each day in a bucket of soapy water, and then rinsed off. Here is what the water looked like from one day's bike ride:
My gosh, what was the smoke doing to my lungs!
When the evacuation order was lifted for South Fork, CO, I finally had a chance to get to their laundromat. It had been open during the week of civilian evacuation; the fire fighters had been using it. There were still hundreds of small laundry soap boxes lying on the tables. They had been offered free to the firefighters. I kidded the attendant that an entire box or two was probably needed for each load of their laundry. She had indeed been amused by the brave and hardy young buckaroos.
After I gave up on getting a package delivered to the post office in South Fork, I was free to escape all that dreadful smoke. It felt so liberating, and was overdue. At some point you have to ask yourself what is the point of being in Colorado if you can't even see the mountains? Clearly I needed to move to the upwind side of the forest fire.
They have finally opened the highway from South Fork to Creede (Colorado) via safety-vehicle-escorted convoys. Creede was twice as smoky as South Fork. Just think, things were a bit un-pretty on the drive to Creede, and there was a tiny bit of inconvenience and -- dare I say it -- danger. It surprised me that we weren't entitled to (free) psychological counseling after we survived the ordeal.
I was surprised how long it took to get away from the smoke. Finally, near the continental divide, the sky looked healthy again. It felt so good that it hurt. Better yet, there was a nice rain shower at the Divide. It is worth it to suffer aridity and fires in May and June just to experience the bliss of the monsoons starting up. How could the mere pitter-patter of rain on the windshield seem as valuable as your favorite music?
Today everything puts a Southwesterner in the mood for appreciating rain, humidity, clouds, and flowing water. Yes, I'm now camping along a stream on the east side of the San Juan Mountains. After the drive I was ready for a nap, and needed to select the perfect music to honor the occasion.
What is the perfect afternoon nap music to celebrate this occasion? It certainly wouldn't be rock, rap, opera, or brass marching band music. It wouldn't emphasize drums or horns. It might emphasize woodwinds.
But wouldn't soothing piano music be best? The piano is unique in how well it fits with the white noise of a flowing stream. The music need not have romantic or emotionally intense melodies, but it must be smoothly melodious. It should not be too cerebral. Rather, it should be physiological.
It should be uniform in volume (decibels). It needs to evoke inevitability. Yes, a sense of Ease and Inevitability to flow effortlessly into sleep.
How about one of the piano-dominant movie soundtracks by Jan Kaczmarek? In fact I chose "Hachi." Zzzz...
My gosh, what was the smoke doing to my lungs!
When the evacuation order was lifted for South Fork, CO, I finally had a chance to get to their laundromat. It had been open during the week of civilian evacuation; the fire fighters had been using it. There were still hundreds of small laundry soap boxes lying on the tables. They had been offered free to the firefighters. I kidded the attendant that an entire box or two was probably needed for each load of their laundry. She had indeed been amused by the brave and hardy young buckaroos.
After I gave up on getting a package delivered to the post office in South Fork, I was free to escape all that dreadful smoke. It felt so liberating, and was overdue. At some point you have to ask yourself what is the point of being in Colorado if you can't even see the mountains? Clearly I needed to move to the upwind side of the forest fire.
They have finally opened the highway from South Fork to Creede (Colorado) via safety-vehicle-escorted convoys. Creede was twice as smoky as South Fork. Just think, things were a bit un-pretty on the drive to Creede, and there was a tiny bit of inconvenience and -- dare I say it -- danger. It surprised me that we weren't entitled to (free) psychological counseling after we survived the ordeal.
I was surprised how long it took to get away from the smoke. Finally, near the continental divide, the sky looked healthy again. It felt so good that it hurt. Better yet, there was a nice rain shower at the Divide. It is worth it to suffer aridity and fires in May and June just to experience the bliss of the monsoons starting up. How could the mere pitter-patter of rain on the windshield seem as valuable as your favorite music?
Today everything puts a Southwesterner in the mood for appreciating rain, humidity, clouds, and flowing water. Yes, I'm now camping along a stream on the east side of the San Juan Mountains. After the drive I was ready for a nap, and needed to select the perfect music to honor the occasion.
What is the perfect afternoon nap music to celebrate this occasion? It certainly wouldn't be rock, rap, opera, or brass marching band music. It wouldn't emphasize drums or horns. It might emphasize woodwinds.
But wouldn't soothing piano music be best? The piano is unique in how well it fits with the white noise of a flowing stream. The music need not have romantic or emotionally intense melodies, but it must be smoothly melodious. It should not be too cerebral. Rather, it should be physiological.
It should be uniform in volume (decibels). It needs to evoke inevitability. Yes, a sense of Ease and Inevitability to flow effortlessly into sleep.
How about one of the piano-dominant movie soundtracks by Jan Kaczmarek? In fact I chose "Hachi." Zzzz...
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