The Mattering of Particulates Continues

Sometimes in the night I'll inhale some irritant and start coughing. And once that happens, it can take a long time to stop. I had an especially bad incident of this sort at 3am, which forced me to go outside, where it was still bloody hot, so I wouldn't wake up our sofa-sleeping daughter. I wonder if something was on fire in the area. Usually it's ash that sets me off like that. One thing I've noticed, in becoming a connoisseur of this sort of coughing, is that it invariably wreaks havoc on my stomach and head the next day. I wonder why that is. Right now, though, I'm going to go outside to do some more recycling in the hopes that the extreme temperature will make me feel better. Sweating often has that effect.

Fort und Da

The Monsoon departed for a few hideous days of June-like heat. But it's on its way back. Of course, we're about to leave for a week. I'm glad we at least got to see some of the lightning show as it closed in on us from the north and south:

There's no way of doing the storm justice with my equipment. It has to rank with the best displays I've ever seen. And now the thunder is rolling. T.S. Eliot would be wetting himself with the perfection of it all.