Arrival report

[celticdragonfly]

Okay, we are back, and we are alive. The house is standing, unbroken into, and the cats are alive, well, and gratifyingly eager to see us. We have phoenixsinger with us for a visit.

That's about it on the good news report. We're getting somewhat better on the whole miserably sick thing. Until we got into this section of Texas. Wow. I'd been nervously reading the fire reports. Still, the air quality is way worse than I'd expected. Horrible smoky haze all over everything. Pray for rain. This is awful. Dante will be wandering by any time now, I'm sure of it. Air quality that makes me *grateful* that my asthmatic son Brendan is currently in Los Angeles is bad.

Anybody have information about air cleaners? The electronic doohickeys you buy? I've always figured they were probably too expensive, but maybe we want one, if we want me to keep breathing well all week. selenite suggests I go look a bunch up online, and I've tried that before, but I just get hopelessly confused because I don't know what I'm looking at.

The place is, of course, a chaotic mess from the pre-trip pre-Xmas prep. I have a lot of housecleaning to do this week.

More when we've rested a bit. Looking forward to chatting with friends again.

Comments

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Driving along I-30 looking at all the blackened spots where small grassfires were is a bit surreal. I assume many, if not most, of themw ere started by drivers tossing cigarettes out windows.

And I was never so glad not to hear fireworks New Year's Eve as I was last night.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

That is the main reason I hate most smokers. They're also litterers.

Not all of them. But most.

As I understand the burn bans, it's now illegal to smoke outdoors?

I have started bleeding from my sinuses. Eeek.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I don't know much about the burn bans, unfortunately. I haven't had more problems than usual with my breathing (although I noted the very pretty sunset due to the smoke). I had more breathing problems when the fires were burning in Mexico a few years back, when I was in College Station.

[archangelbeth]

I don't know about portable air cleaners, but Consumer Reports appears to have several free articles about 'em.

traveled here via soldiergrrl's f-list

[ladytwnks.livejournal.com]

I've got the original ionic breeze ( www.sharperimage.com ) portable air cleaner.

even with a large german shepherd running wildly about the house, my asthmatic husband isnt being affected by dander. and it really is as easy to clean as the commercials show...

plus I got a free bathroom one, and it REALLY keeps the bathroom the 12 year old boy uses smelling clean. you know *that* is a huge deal. :)

as far as OTC meds go, wal-mart's brand of claratin does a bang-up job. about 9 dollars for a month's worth, one very small pill a day.

hope that helps a bit...

Re: traveled here via soldiergrrl's f-list

[archangelbeth]

My husband also uses the OTC Clariten (or however it's spelt), and has since it was prescription. It does a WONDERFUL job for him. (For his father, not so much; he uses Allegra-oid something or other.)

[scherzoid.livejournal.com]

Yay that the fires aren't anywhere near your house! Hope that trend continues...

There are two main types of air cleaners out there. The first are HEPA cleaners, which basically use a big fan to suck air through a filter. The main drawbacks are having to replace the filter every now and then, and the fact that that big fan is inevitably going to produce some level of white noise, which you might find annoying.

The second type is ionizing air cleaners, like the Ionic Breeze from Sharper Image. They work by imparting a positive electrical charge onto incoming air -- and the particulates contained in it, which are then trapped by negatively-charged metal plates, which you wipe clean with a damp sponge every now and then. The upshot of this method is that it's COMPLETLEY silent. Unfortunately, a byproduct of the ionization process is ozone, which can exacerbate health problems in some people. It's a major asthma trigger for me, and it drove my wife absolutely nuts during the "bionic nose" phase of her pregnancy. Our Ionic Breeze has been sitting unplugged for almost a year now. Of course, so has our HEPA cleaner -- replacing our carpets with hardwood floors has made it much easier to keep a relatively allergen-free home.

Another option might be an electrostatic air filter in your AC/furnace system. We had one of those when I was growing up, and ozone was never a problem.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the advice. Karl went out and bought a big HEPA filter. It's running. The noise isn't too bad.

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

Ick. The air quality hasn't been nearly that bad down here in Houston.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

Houston didn't have fires, did it?

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

Not sure. Certainly there's a great deal of signage/publicity about the fire dangers and burn ban.