Ornery

Ornery is an adjective that describes someone who is bad-tempered, irritable, stubborn, or difficult to deal with. It is an informal, colloquial term mostly used in American English to depict a grumpy or contrary disposition.

I feel ornery this morning. Yes, I do.

• The AQI in my area is still, again, in the 400s (hazardous)... like yesterday.
• This AQI level makes it unsafe to run outdoors.  Theoretically it would be safer to run indoors but that is not possible with the continuing HVAC issues.
• I feel ornery from not having exercised.  
• I feel ornery because the pool has also been closed because of the AQI/HVAC situation.
• The pool has become a sort of "therapy" for me to at least end the day and transition into a calming, restful evening.  I have even (during this Summer) also indulged in a quick swim in the morning on days when I have ran on the track indoors.  
• Even though I likely made the right decision, I feel ornery that I did not go to the Retiree's Cigar Group yesterday.  It may be stupid, but that weekly excursion is damn important to me.  

I tend to be rather odor sensitive.  I either appreciate an odor (delicious foods, pipe tobaccos, flowers, etc.) or I greatly dislike an odor (grease, frying, etc.).  But, this wildfire smoke is so odd.... at a brief surface level it has a bit of the odor of a campfire.... which is relatively fine, but there are other odor components in this wildfire smoke too... which gnaw at my mind and I dislike.  And, obviously.... with the AQI in the 400s.... where it is at.... it is not good to be within..... but there damn well little we can do to be outside of it.  

• I feel ornery because the U buildings are not running their air conditioning as much as they should.  It is much warmer than their typical air conditioning, and that is further abundantly apparent in the considerable "smoky" texture to the air in the buildings compared to other buildings (such as stores) I have been in the last couple of days.
• I feel ornery because I do not feel like doing a damn thing.  Part of this may be from lack of exercise, part of it may be my mood, and part of it may be the possible impact of the bad air generally, I guess too.  

So, what to do?  Well, I came here specifically to gripe about my damnable "woe-is-me" feelings.... to try to put them down somewhere, so I could then try to leave them here.... and move on to trying to figure out how to do something more productive and valuable.  I hope it works, and my day improves.

PipeTobacco