It’s been since Wednesday either of us has been outside more than 10 minutes. The place sounds like a hospital: we have 3 air filters and two thingies which diffuse oil into the air. Mme Awesome filled them with products which help with breathing and, to be frank, they’ve made a world of difference. As in able to sleep through the night again.

We’re still daily sitting on the bike trainer and doing some strength stuff.

Why not leave? First of all, getting back was on the forefront of our thoughts. It is challenging to read the signs correctly with such an agenda. Plus, while we saw smoke far south from here, neither of us have experienced an event of this magnitude. Said another way, it took a few days being in it for the extent of the smoke to actually register. Maybe 15 minutes from home, we actually stopped at a park in the hills to walk for a bit. Yes it was smokey, though how could we know that was already passed the right time to turn it around?

The bus fridge….. Still an open topic. Options include:

Get the part that may be the fix. $111

Get a new 12v DC fridge with a good warranty. $600+

Get a new cheap 12v DC fridge. $380

Get a chest freezer, which are all too large, and a mechanism to have it work as a fridge. $125-200

Option 2, the swankiest group, includes possibilities such a model which already has a lithium battery chargeable directly from a solar panel. No need for new house batteries or solar array then, a lot of money effort and resources saved even if the capability adds to the cost of the unit itself.

For some reason too, it only dawned on me since returning here to shutting off power to the device overnight would have been helpful.