mattie g

I think this is being lost with all the smoke discussion. The temperatures have been outrageous for quite some time now. To have lows consistently in the 40s and 50s through much of May and the first week of June is amazing. Since the beginning of May, Dulles has had only three nights with lows of 60 or above.

I honestly love it. It's a pain in the ass and kills my ability to do much else in the summer, but I really wouldn't have it any other way. I went so far as to get S&T recertified last weekend and will be doing new Starter training this Sunday. I figure I have to keep myself involved after I retire from the Team Rep gig!

My team does data analytics for a government client. Talk about nerding out and going down serious data rabbit holes on this stuff...

We have a few teenagers who help our younger swimmers, but they're mostly walking on the bottom while helping the little ones with their strokes and the like, i.e., not doing any strenuous activity. That young group is a lot of 5s and 6s who are beyond a learn-to-swim program but who still need to build stamina to get across the pool regularly. Our other 8&U kids are swimming without coaches in the pool. Our Juniors program starts the week after school is out...those are the ones who need a crew of teenage coaches there at all times to keep them safe. Sounds similar to the kids your 10-plus coaches (really good number of coaches, by the way!) are working with. Good on you for wearing a mask! I think there are a lot of folks who won't because they'd rather show that a little haze doesn't bother them. That may seem at odds with how I've been talking about this, but there does come a point where it's just not a good idea to be bullheaded about it and to accept that there are health hazards associated with this awful AQI.

I would imagine it helps in the immediate term, but the prevailing winds could eventually bring in smoke from other areas.

Sure...we realize that. I'm not terribly concerned about the coaches who are walking around the pool barking at the kids to stop doing flips, leaning on the lane lines, and staying in their streamlines after the start. The air quality wasn't *that* bad yesterday afternoon such that simply being outside was a danger. Our concern is with the kids who are going hard in practice and breathing hard in the process, and our intent is to let the parents make the decision they feel is best for their kids. In the end, we cancelled anyway, as the coaches outvoted my co-rep and me on holding/not holding practice. Now...with air quality like this morning there's no way we'd have made a decision to practice - optional or not. I wore an N95 in the city this morning because it was nasty as hell, and I wouldn't ask our coaches to be outside for three hours coaching in those conditions...let alone even suggest to parents that we'd practice in it!

So did mine. Ugh.

Lucky you guys! I have no idea why ours are being kept in until then since we also had no days off, but we persevere...

Picture I took from on top of a building at 10th and F, NW at about 8:00am. The Capitol should be visible on the middle left, but no dice. Edit: It's interesting that the smoke is much more noticeable in the picture around where the sun is shining, but in person it all looks pretty much the same (and definitely not blue like on the right/west).

Our kids are in school until next Friday.

Fairfax County just cancelled all on-premise outdoor activities for the day. This is interesting and all, but it's already gotten old.

Always...

Do you have a good site to monitor (nearly) real-time AQI? AirNow.gov seems decent, but it appears to only refresh once an hour and I'd love something that refreshes a little more often.

The worst. For us it's if there's a train that goes by when there are some clouds in the sky. That HAD to have been thunder! Funny thing is that when there's a meet it's often the other way around

That's amazing. Truly.

We're telling everyone practice is optional (which it kind of is every day ). Our pool management company tends to the cautious side on this kind of stuff - I just hope they don't make an uninformed decision to close.

Lots of teams are cancelling swim practice (and at least one pool just decided to close for the day). Looks like it'll clear up a bit after school lets out, so we're planning to make a call at about 3:00. Figure we'll plan for light practices anyway, even if it does clear up.

I had to come into the city today, and I kept thinking that if I opened the window I would immediately start sweating since it looked like it should have been 85 and humid at 7:00 am. Definitely reminded me of growing up in the 80s and walking out of the house and into a hazy soup *every morning* in the summertime.

I have no doubt that I like my own beer because it's mine...and that nwbw's is better than I could produce!

Been going low thew last couple years, but I have a feeling the rubber bands snaps, so... DCA 101 IAD 103 BWI 101 RIC 102

Damn...that's pretty sweet. I just have a burner and a bag. BIAB is just too easy, and I make a damn fine beer, if I do say so myself!

Sad to have all those wildfires happening, but the results down here are so anomalous that it's actually pretty cool. Kind of like a Cat 5 up the Potomac and all that.

Same down in my neck of the woods. What a weird couple/few months of weather.

I'm going to keep fighting this fight. He said 1/1 to 6/5, so it wasn't really a "first five months" thing. Completely agreed!

Agreed, but that's just a dumb stat. No?