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26 June, 1998
As I dragged myself from slumber this morning, again in a dazed haze of sleepiness and general, just-woken-up unpleasantness, the quality of the light outside struck me immediately. It was just plain odd. Bright but hazy and nearly green all at the same time. There is another ozone alert declared in the area today, the bus services offering free rides so that public will use public transport rather than driving into work. I wish more people took the bus and train anyway so that they'd run more frequently and through more places, but that's very wishful thinking in this country. The car is God here. I dress carefully for the conditions -- long dark pants, navy long-sleeved cotton sweater over a t-shirt and plunk my straw hat firmly down on my head. If there's an ozone alert, that means the atmosphere is trouble and that I am 10 times as likely to sunburn than I am already and the chances, on my pale Irish-descended skin are extremely high as is. We venture out into the heat. It slams into me like a wave and I nearly stagger backwards as I leave the apartment, suddenly fighting to make every breath a full one. Pollution is usually high during these alerts, exacerbated by the heat, meaning that the air quality is very poor. I have trouble breathing and long for sweet cool mountain air, or the shade beneath the trees in the woods. The car moves out onto the road, the tarmac gleaming and throwing up a shimmer of heat-illusions across its surface. I lean back into my seat, away from the windows, away from the light, as if I were a sun-touched vampire. We arrive at the Metro stop and I have to gulp air again as I wave good-bye to Sabs and trudge resignedly into the station. The sky is high and blue but it is cast over with that haze which lends it that crazy greenish-gray cast. I stand at the platform waiting for the train and look up at the sky, visible through the sky-lights on the platform and think that sometimes, it's a terrible thing to be living in the 90's. |
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