Not diabetes, but a few prayers please

Last I read, they were hoping for containment sometime around Holloween.

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I am hoping for the best for you and your family, Chris. My sister is also in Portland and hearing about the air quality alone is scary. Am keeping you all in my thoughts and sending hopes for rain. xo - Jessica

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Well a bit of good news, the evacuation order was lifted for my town and the large one to our south, which is good news. Of course the air quality is atrocious, but that is much preferred to having your house burn down. Hopefully the weather system comes as predicted on Tuesday and knocks some of the ash out of the air. Thank you all for the kind thoughts and prayers.

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Iā€™m so glad to hear you guys are safe for now. The air is of course horrid, but staying inside and running a bunch of air purifiers should hopefully help.
HEreā€™s hoping for some kind of miracle rain event and that the winds hold.

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Iā€™m glad youā€™re safe and hope the arsonists and their path of destruction donā€™t get any closer to your familyā€™s home.

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Glad to hear things are looking better for you. I was evacuated for the Waldo Canyon Fire in 2012 (and then my route home got blocked by flooding a few times the next summer before the mitigation projects were completed). Not fun.

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Glad to see you, Carolyn

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So so sorry for all of this, @Chris! My continued prayers are with you guys throughout the upcoming developments.

On a side note, the smoke is sitting between 10,000ā€™ and 22,000ā€™ above Kentucky. Our sunsets look like African Sahara postcards right now which is freaky. And my tennis shoes were covered in the stuff after walking around my dewy backyard yesterday morning. Thatā€™s never happened before. It wiped off of the rubber part of my shoe just fine, but it is sticking to the fabric parts of my shoe. Definitely smoke/soot/dust from out west. I cannot imagine being in the thick of it all. I know airlines have been cancelling flights due to zero visibility from the fires. Yeesh. Stay safe.

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Wow, the smoke and soot is over Kentucky!? I donā€™t see it here in NYC area but then probably the air quality here is already so smokey and sooty that anything new would not be noticeable! :thinking:

Seriously though, this is bad. I pray for Chris and his family to stay safe, and everyone, too, who are effected by the poor air quality. :pray: :hugs:

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Well we are still living in smokey smoke land. The rain never materialized, but things are slowly getting better. We are down to just Very Unhealthy in the particulate matter counts, and we might even hit just Unhealthy by the weekend. Having never lived anywhere that the smog is bad, this is really strange, i.e. getting light headed when working out lightly and not being able to take a walk without getting light headed, and I have no pulmonary issues, I canā€™t imagine riding this out with COPD or another ailment affecting the lungs.

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Itā€™s so horrible. I really really hope it clears up soon for you. We reached GREEN air just yesterday and it was amazing how much it improved my mood and well-being.
I hope you guys have some very powerful air purifiers in your house because they do seem to help.

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We donā€™t have any air purifiers, but we do have a 3M HEPA filter in the furnace and are running the recirculating fan 24/7. It seems to help.

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I have been using a homemade box fan filter with a MERV 13 securely taped to the inlet sideā€¦it improves indoor air quality when allowed to run continuously. Itā€™s a nice supplement to the forced air furnace filter because it can be used in smaller spaces although a little loud.

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We are using a MERV 12 in our furnace, and it is massive i.e. 20" by 20" by 4", so it does a good job, but I like your setup for the room. Might have to head to the Home Depot and see what I can gin up.

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Get some special shiny silver tape intended for sealing air ductsā€¦(canā€™t remember what itā€™s called). You need a good seal on the inlet side so 100% of the air passes through the filter.

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In case you have not seen this site, he provides detailed forecasts of the short term smoke conditions. Centered around Seattle but provides a good forecast for Oregon as well. Unfortunately there is so much smoke it seems to be swirling out in the Pacific waiting to get blown back at us.

I have decided to attempt an escape for a week, headed to Tetons. Hoping the outdoor breathing is easier there.

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Smoky here in Eastern Idaho but better than in Portland.

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From what Iā€™ve read, the 13 is appreciably more effective for smoke than the 12ā€¦ 13s seem to be sold out all over the west coast though. I ordered some on eBay a couple days ago and they havenā€™t shipped yet

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Praying that everything works out. Love that Tshirt pic btw!

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You have to be careful with the 13ā€™s if your furnace isnā€™t up to the task it can be too tough to draw air through and can destroy your furnace so make sure it is specā€™d for it.