Journal of a Plague Year, Tuesday, May 19

Air quality has been bad this week, as smoke as come with the winds from fires in México.

I first noticed the problem last Thursday, May 14, when I suddenly had problems breathing outside around 10:30 am. The next day I checked the air quality screen on the NOAA website, and saw vertical smoke was going into Texas.

Saturday, I woke up with breathing problems. I tried inhaling oxygen from one of those oxygen machines they sell to gym rats, but still had to take medicine. I finally had to put on a mask to be outside around 9:45 am. The NOAA map showed heavy smoke in west Texas.

Yesterday, NOAA’s map showed smoke was covering this area. I had to put a mask again around 7:30 pm, but this time in the house.

Today the map showed smoke still covered the area with a particularly thick plume west of the Rockies and a concentration of surface smoke around Albuquerque. I didn’t want to waste a mask, so stayed in the house.

Around 9:30 am, I had to put the mask on anyway, again when I was in the house.

I couldn’t let my low inventory of masks stop me from wearing one, so I ventured onto Amazon. I entered my usual band, and other brands came up. I didn’t much care who made it, so long as it worked.

None were being sold by Amazon, and none had inflated prices. I read Amazon was trying to remove those vendors from its marketplace.

Some of the third party vendors said they were shipping direct from China. That would take too long, and I wasn’t real sure they would arrive. Rumors persist the federal government is impounding masks and other protective gear from China, though I think that’s usually limited to medical grade.

I didn’t need something to protect me from the virus. Well, I do, but those aren’t available. What I need is something to protect me from dust, pollen, chemical fumes, and smoke. Scarcities caused by the coronavirus had made them impossible to get earlier.

I took a chance on a vendor with a relatively low customer approval rating. It actually claimed to ship the same day.

Since I’ve learned vendors sometimes create labels that trick Amazon into thinking they’ve shipped when they haven’t, I checked the Amazon website. The postal service tracing said it was delivered to a post office near Los Angeles and had been transferred to the City of Industry distribution center.

As they say, it’s in the mail, but one of the bottleneck areas.

Still, knowing the masks actually are coming means I can use the ones I have when I need them, without worrying about running out because of the virus.

This is a copy of the smoke map I made while I was preparing to post this. On Tuesday, that gray area covered New Mexico.