*cough*

This morning there was a faint smell of smoke in the air. Throughout the day it got progressively worse. The air is hazy and thick with smoke; if you go outside for five or ten minutes your chest starts to burn. We’re at Code Red for air quality.

It’s not a local fire, but it’s bad: a wildfire in the Outer Banks started almost two weeks ago, and it’s still going despite the efforts of several hundred fire crews to put it out. It’s definitely spooky. I feel like I should be packing up the kids and bugging out for safer pastures—not because I actually think we’re in danger here, but because that constant forest-fire smell woke up the primitive lizard-brain at the top of my spine, and it’s saying “Fire! Get out now!”