Poisoning the Planet

I can't believe it's Friday already. I have lost 3 days in the twilight zone of headaches. I started things off with a migraine and nausea, so lost Tuesday in and out of it as I lay on the couch. Felt OK at night and then managed to get some work done on a large crochet project I was working on. Got up the next day and felt a bit of a twinge in my head and a slight upset stomach. Since we had things to do, we ended up driving by the chemical plant, where the smokestack was spewing and these gigantic vats were steaming. The smell was nasty and my stomach got worse. We did what we needed to do, including the laundry, came home, hung up the wet clothes on the drying rack and I made lunch. Bill went out for a walk and I sat there feeling like crap. In a little while, it felt like someone was behind my right eye stabbing it with an ice pick, while at the same time trying to push it out of my head! Nonetheless, I managed to read a novel that was next up on my pile. It's a good thing it wasn't anything more than that, because I wouldn't have been able to comprehend it anyway. Felt somewhat better after dinner, but by the time I went to bed it was coming back. Woke up yesterday with it again and lost most of the day just sitting here trying not to move. I could barely open my eyes and they were watering. Nothing really helped until I just lay back down on the couch and dozed. I have come to expect my once-a-month migraines. It's a great deal better than the awful ones I used to get every 10 days or so. Changing my diet really helped with that. But ever since I have been exposed to the kinds of pollution that hang in the air, first in Klamath Falls and now here, I have been really laid low at times. Last year at this time I was coughing and choking because of the temperature inversion that lasted for weeks over Klamath Falls and trapped all of the pollution in the Basin. Now I am here with all of the industrial pollution—who knows what's leftover from when there was all that heavy industry here—and the chemical plant. This morning I have my usual clogged ear, draining head, and chest congestion. This is not the first time I have lost several days to this kind of thing and we have only been here for 2 months. The first day we moved into this apartment, I got a headache that lasted for the next 4 days. I marvel at the fact that we seem to be so carefree about the destruction we are doing to this precious environment of ours. I now have to used filtered water for cooking, drinking, tea, etc. The first time I had a sip of water from the tap, I thought it was coming right back up. The chemical taste is horrible. So drinking the water is out unless it's filtered first and apparently breathing the air isn't too healthy either. It's a very sad state of affairs.

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