Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May

Foster City Lagoon on Tuesday, January 11th

It's a goal, not a resolution

A modest exercise goal since the beginning of the year has been to take at least 10,000 steps each day. That's a little over four miles, which means a minimum outdoors walk of three miles plus a pedestrian (!) activity like shopping.

Hitting the target this week has been a strain because breathing has been difficult. In decades past I enjoyed the sweet smell of operating fireplaces, but late-onset asthma has quelled that pleasure. Before setting out I pack the emergency inhaler and check the air quality: [bold added]

Air quality across the Bay Area was “moderate” to “unhealthy” Thursday morning due to a high-pressure system trapping pollutants in the air over the region, meteorologists said.

The high-pressure system that brought sunny skies and seasonable weather to the Bay Area this week has also made the air stagnant, meteorologists said. A temperature inversion is to blame.

That’s when the air closest to the ground is cooler than higher elevations, allowing fine particles from car exhaust and fireplaces to stay trapped at the ground level.

Aaron Richardson, a spokesperson with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, said poorer air quality levels at this time of year weren’t unusual.

He said people using their fireplaces is the biggest source of fine particle pollution.

The Bay Area received a lot of rain in the past two months that helped clear the air, he said.

“But now with this high-pressure system, pollution is building up a little bit,” Richardson said.

San Mateo County banned the addition of wood-burning fireplaces in 2015. The silver lining is that our two grandfathered fireplaces, which we haven't used this century due to allergies, could be a desirable feature to a prospective buyer.

Well, enough musing about future real estate values. Time to put on the walking shoes to try to extend that future a little longer.