The Big "DUH!!"

[Cudedog]

As Velda said on the other thread, the weather here was a lot better today than it has been for about the past month.

This afternoon, there wasn't too much smoke in the air, the sky looked a brownish-blue (a lot better than grayish-brown); but without the smoke cover temps were up a bit. I fooled around outside for a while doing this and that, it's either been too hot or too smoky (or both) to go outside for weeks.

Shortly after dark temps had cooled quite a bit. I decided to take Joe for a "walk" (I have a large-ish back yard, so I got his leash - if I don't put him on the leash he just lies in the middle of the yard and watches me go by as I circle the yard).

It was dark, I had my headlamp on, and was getting ready to stride out, but Joe was hanging back (judging by what comes next, "The Big Duh", Joe is obviously smarter than I am. Velda, I would bet you wouldn't have made this mistake either.).

Anyway, with a headlamp, and after dark, one can always see "stuff" in the air, tiny bugs, dust, whatever.

Suddenly I noticed what looked like, in the light of the headlamp, what looked like a very heavy mist swirling in front of my face whenever I moved. I mean, this stuff was thick, about like if you threw a BIG handful of flour up in the air in front of your face and it spread out everywhere and didn't fall to the ground.

I thought this really weird.

And it wasn't rain. I was actually stupid enough to ask myself "What the h--- is that?" Just as I got to the 'h---' part of my thought, the light came on and I realized I had just committed "The Big Duh".

It wasn't rain mist. It wasn't (obviously) flour. It was a tumbling, swirling mass of extremely fine ash particles, whirling in the air. Turning around, wherever the head lamp sent a beam, I could see this thick stuff everywhere. I have never seen anything like it.

I immediately came back into the house. Joe couldn't get back inside fast enough, bless him.

Once inside, I noticed a yummy new treat. I generally leave my butter on the counter, in an enclosed butter dish. After dinner, I had forgotten to put the top back on.

You guessed it. The butter was now sporting an interesting design of minuscule black specks. Yes. It was ash.

I tossed the butter, and wiped down the counters and stove.

I don't think it will help very much. The stuff drifting around outside is so fine, you can't keep it out.

All this with my HEPA filter running 24/7, and new furnace/ac filters just installed.

Welcome to California.

Anne

[BarbaraRose]

Wow! What a mess that must be! You sure don't want to be ingesting that ash. Bad enough to be breathing it! Be careful!

[MandysMom]

I am particularly cautious about microfine particulate because they are not usually visible to the eye. Monday as I left, as i opened the door of the PT, I happened to be looking right at the space between door edge and door jam and could clearly see ash in the air, even though just looking straight at it, it was invisible. Had to be in the light kind of like when you look across a beam of sunlight coming in a window and can suddenly see dust floating! So, I put my mask on before opening door of car! Side note: we had a beautiful, sweet Calico cat for 12 years. All through her youth and into adulthood, she made a game of finding where the sun was coming into the house and attempting to catch these tiny dust particles. We named her game : Kallies Useless Pursuit!
Velda

[JudyJB]

Wow. I hope you did not breath much of that ash into your lungs? How is it today? Do you have a garage so you can get into your car without going outside???

[MandysMom]

My car is not garaged, because I keep it in front of house and garage is detached and around side at back of property.
As an experiment, tonight, I went out with my high power LED flashlight . After a bit of fiddling I got an angle to look across the beam and could see particulate in the air- and our AQI tonight is down in good range at 24! I can't image what it would have shown a few days ago.
Velda