Tag Archive for: wishing I could stay in bed

Smoke of a Distant Fire

/in /by

 Smoke of a Distant Fire

By Cathy Perkins

Wildfires continue to devastate large swaths of California,
Oregon and Washington, leaving death and destruction of lives, towns, and forests
behind them.

I started to open this post with bullet points, such as:

  • Climate change is real
  • Science is real

But I generally leave the politics to my blog mate, Kay.

Here at The Stiletto Gang, we try to entertain and educate.
Sometimes the posts are about books and sometimes about whatever subject inspired
our latest story. But sometimes, the post is simply to inform.

Today, I want to tell you about smoke and the dangers of
smoke inhalation. In a burning building, smoke inhalation overwhelms most
victims, but with wildfires, smoke can be a widespread, more subtle danger. While
the type and amount of particles and chemicals in smoke varies depending on
what’s burning, how much oxygen is available, and the burn temperature, all
smoke contains carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and particulate matter.

In very broad terms, these are the effects of those three
components. Inhaling carbon monoxide decreases the body’s oxygen supply. (It
attaches more tightly to the red blood cell, preventing oxygen from reaching
tissue in your body.) This can cause headaches, reduce alertness, and aggravate
a heart condition known as angina. Fine particles can travel deeply into the
respiratory tract, reaching the lungs. Inhaling fine particles can cause a
variety of health effects, including respiratory irritation and shortness of
breath, and can worsen medical conditions such as asthma and heart disease. During
increased physical exertion, cardiovascular effects can be worsened by exposure
to carbon monoxide and particulate matter. Once exposure stops, symptoms from
inhaling carbon monoxide or fine particles generally diminish, but may last for
a couple of days.

The CDC has a one-page information sheet that you may find
interesting or helpful.

https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/wildfires/smoke.html

On a personal level, I’m surrounded by three major wildfires. Cold Creek to the northeast, Evans Canyon to the southeast and smoke from the Oregon fires pushing in from the south and west. So, the air quality here has been in the “very unhealthy” zone for a week. It occasionally topples over into “hazardous” territory, which basically means don’t go outside if you can help it. We’ve kept the house closed up, but inevitably smoke comes in every time we do go outside, so it’s less of a sanctuary now.

The view looking out my door: 

Yeah, there’s normally a forest and a mountain visible out there. 

Staying home, limiting the social bubble, was tough enough
when we could get outside and hike or golf or just sit by the river. After a
week inside the house, I have even more sympathy for my friends in Brooklyn and
other large cities, where “getting outside” might mean sitting on the front
steps of your building. I’m also battling burning eyes, swollen sinuses, a
headache and a general feeling of, can I just curl up on the couch?

Pray for rain and offer thanks to the dedicated firefighters
who are slowly containing the fires.

And now I have that song as an earworm…

You left me here…

Girl your eyes…


An award-winning author of financial mysteries, Cathy Perkins writes twisting dark suspense and light amateur sleuth stories.  When not writing, she battles with the beavers over the pond height or heads out on another travel adventure. She lives in Washington with her husband, children, several dogs and the resident deer herd.  Visit her at http://cperkinswrites.com or on Facebook 

Sign up for her new release announcement newsletter in either place.

She’s hard at work on the sequel to The Body in the Beaver Pond, which was recently presented with the Claymore Award. 

Being interesting

/in /by

by: Joelle Charbonneau

I’m sick. Or perhaps I should say, I’m as sick as I am allowed to be. There’s still work to be done, lessons to teach, writing to do, etc… The tot is also coming down with a cold and if things play out as usual, the husband will be showing signs of illness soon. Which means as much as I’d prefer to stay in bed with a good book and a cup of tea, I’ll instead be tending to my family while pretending I don’t feel like a truck ran over me.

Which got me to thinking. In the books I read, none of the protagonists get sick. I mean, not really. They might have broken bones, or are in wheelchairs or they might even have a cold – but they aren’t allowed to be sick.

You know what I mean. I’m certain it happens at your house. You have a 101 degree fever, but there is dinner to make or a meeting you can’t possibly miss at work. So you pretend you aren’t as sick as you feel. You load up on orange juice and whatever antihistamines you have in your cabinets and off you go to live your life as though nothing is bothering you.

Protagonists in books are the same way. No matter how bad they feel, they aren’t allowed to be sick. They might sniffle a bit and tuck some Kleenex in their purses, but that doesn’t stop them from tracking down clues, being a support system to their friends and solving murders. Cause let’s face it, no one wants to read about a person who is sitting in bed waiting for their illness to pass them by. The illness makes them sympathetic, but it is everything else they do that makes the character and the story interesting.

So, while this week progresses, I’m going to pretend I’m the protagonist of my own personal drama. When I’m getting annoyed that no one is letting me be sick, I’m going to remind myself that really they are just encouraging me to be interesting. Please feel free to play the game with me. Tell me what you wish you’d be allowed to slack off on this week and how you plan on being very interesting instead.