Highs and lows (otherwise known as AQI Air Quality index)

Whew. It has been a crazy two weeks, in the skies around here. We had almost two weeks of HORRIBLe pollution that made us (and everyone we knew) literally almost depressed with the gray skies and more with the knowledge that it was felt like we were being poisoned by our air. Last week I had to get my pacemaker checked and the process required me to go down to the hospital three times, an hour plus on the subway each way made for almost 15 hours of time there. (By the way it all checked out ok, they just needed to change a setting on it)  With 500+ air quality index at times. The crazy thing was all the windows in the HOSPITAL were open. They are either in serious denial or the Chinese medicine theory of "fresh" air blowing through the building trumped air pollution. At any rate, I digress. The air was really bad for about two weeks.

 This is rush hour on the subway. And it wasn't even all that crowded yet (I am not kidding). It is amazing how many people you can pack on that thing.

 My defense against the air.

 This was a 400+ day.  We then had a couple of days where it was over 500. Those were days we definitely stayed inside with out purifiers turned up.  I feel like staying in we with the purifiers we are not really experiencing much harm to ourselves, but it just mentally feels sort of suffocating.

I believe that is called the sun.

  But then...drumroll..after a day where it hit 540, the next morning we woke up to THIS:

AQI of less than 50 and really beautiful skies. What happened? A little rain and some wind are all it takes.  We have had some up and down days since then. Yesterday spiked up again around 300 but then today I woke up and my phone said the AQI was 13. Thirteen!  I don't think I have ever seen it under 20. I thought for sure they had forgotten a zero on the end. It was beautiful today. Cold and windy but I have never loved wind so much.  So it is up and down but should be more down (AQI) with spring coming, which makes us all feel more up. And so thankful for our purifiers and masks..they do help a lot. And mostly thankful that this is not our true home,  a marred and temporary dwelling with many blessings but not a permanent place.

And this was just for fun...gotta love bad translations.  Sounds delicious.