Air

       Are any of you as eager as I am for a good rain?  I am tired of blowing bloody boogers out of my nose, of having to water my garden twice a week in the middle of December, of having to lubricate my eyes and nose every day.  Not to mention what is no doubt happening in my lungs which thankfully I can’t see.

        Spare the air days are upon us.  Don’t burn in in your fireplace, we’re told.  How many people do you know who have fireplaces they use?  How many people do you know who have cars they use?  Do we ever have a ban on car driving?  Do the air quality folks ever propose car free days?  What would happen to our air quality if there were a day every week in this kind of weather when cars were not allowed on the streets or bridges?  The sole vehicles on the road would be buses and for emergency:  fire, police, ambulance and the only way across the Bay and on Oakland’s streets would be by bus and BART.  Think what a difference that would make in our air quality.  Also noise level, but that’s a topic for another day.

        I enjoy the sun as much as anyone and it’s great to find a warm spot to sit in as I read or write.  But I also enjoy breathing, especially when the air is clean.  Banning fireplace fires is a gesture that increases people’s awareness, in case they hadn’t noticed, of the air quality.  But it’s like pissing in the ocean for its effectiveness compared with what banning car travel would do.

        I hope you who read this will do what you do when you want something important and out of your control to happen:  pray, do a dance, burn incense, anything short of human or animal sacrifice, whatever has worked for you in the past to bring us some rain.  Meanwhile, try not using your car one day a week.  And don’t light that fireplace.