Smoke in the West

We returned home from California to the heavy smell of smoke in the air. There are fires north of Santa Fe, and the sky is hazy and the air smells.

We had been to see my son and his wife in Ventura, north of L.A., driving the whole long way since air travel just isn't a thing I'll do now. Everywhere the skies were hazy although we did not smell any smoke on the trip. But the mountains all along the route had completely disappeared into thick grayness and the skies had a flat look.

My son telling the dog about a new baby coming soon

It was a long trip, but worth it to see them. We only got out of the car to get gas and use restrooms, all our food was our own, eaten in the car. We stayed at a hotel (it's a 13 hour drive, we do it over two days) but saw no one except the desk lady, masked and behind plexiglass. We ate at night in the hotel restaurant, but it was mostly empty, with tables far apart, the terrace doors were wide open and of course staff was masked. I felt pretty okay. The room was clean.

We didn't do much at my son's house, just hung out with them, but then we did have dinner at his in-law's. We ate outside and it was absolutely lovely.

A California sunset at dinner time

We all had a good time sitting around until well after dark talking, and their home is beyond gorgeous. We were outdoors, but it was more mingling with people from other parts of the country than I have done in five months. No one wore masks. 

Risk is a difficult concept to get comfortable with. The virus is unseen and unreal -- are my cautions enough? Too much? Silly or well founded? Smoke in the air is real -- it smells and it's definitive, letting you know there is risk out there and it's bad. You shut the windows and don't go out.

The fires aren't near us and we can stay distanced from the virus. I'm good. But I struggle with balancing risk calculations. I want to see family and visit friends and go places, and we are experimenting with it in small bits, very cautiously. 

With travel and visits so hard to do, and with our windows shut against the smoke, I'm trying to evaluate how I feel about the unseen risks, the smelled risks, and when we are ever going to get through all of this. . . .