Living on Long Island I had the dark yellow color skies due to the Canada wildfires. I felt like I was living in an eerie Stephen King novel. As eerie as my sky was, NYC was still way worse. The sky there was so dark you couldn’t see buildings in front of your face.

That is freaking INSANE!!! I immediately wrote to my friend who lives in Montreal. Can you see or breathe? She replied “see, yes, breathe, no”. I can’t imagine how it is for the people in the areas of these fires that the smoke has traveled so far south.

My friend from Canada was just here on Saturday. She came in for the day just to visit me. One of my oldest friends, by time known, not by age. We met when we were 15 at summer camp. We kept a relationship up for 35 years before cell phones existed. Two young kids from different countries. That is pretty impressive . She was supposed to catch a flight out that evening but the flight got canceled due to staffing shortages. Unfortunately she had to spend about 4 hours fighting to get herself rebooked on another flight. She got her airfare with her points and even though the plane was cancelled due to something so ridiculous, they would only rebooked her on a flight that had a seat matching her seat originally booked with the points. There was another flight with business class seating but they wouldn’t upgrade her. She would have to use an additional 36k points for that seat. The flight is an hour. Certainly not worth 36,000 points. It was a mess.

She ended up getting a flight out in the early morning and they waved certain fees. Thankfully after that whole ordeal we were able to have a really nice time together. It was great she was able stay over. It was great she was even here. We talked about everything , had a few tears tears, and had tons of laughs. It meant so much to me that she was here. Getting a hug from her was like getting a car when you turned 17. The word happy couldn’t come close. She is one of the very very few people that I can take the mask off. I don’t have to pretend everything is ok. She can see through it anyway. That’s what makes a true friend. I hope she realizes how much her visit meant to me. I am very lucky to have a friend like her.

Hopefully she is keeping safe in these wildfires. Her and her husband always have a place to stay here. However, I just got another call regarding the air quality safety for today. Our town is giving out free masks for children, elderly or anyone with a respiratory condition. Great. Hoping for a breathable day.