A lot of people have been messaging me after seeing wildfire footage on the news — so here's an update. There are three fires burning west of us here in the Okanagan Valley, and the lakes are acting as a wall between them and the city. The fires aren't the problem. The smoke is.
Smoke gives me headaches, burns my eyes, keeps me indoors, and wrecks my ability to think and work. So my son and I got in the car and drove out of it — through a mountain pass where the air quality index hit 1,000, over to Vancouver, and onto a ferry to Victoria.
Along the way: a band in karate outfits that put a spell on an entire festival crowd, a full day working in person with my Transistor colleague Josh Anderton, and a walk-and-talk with Mike Vardy, one of Transistor's longest-running customers. Plus a growing suspicion that remote work, which I've championed for years, still has no answer for what happens when you sit beside someone.
Chapters
00:00 Why everyone's been messaging me
00:21 Three fires, and a wall of lakes
00:43 Smoke doesn't respect borders
00:56 What the smoke does to my head
01:10 Hitting the road with my son
01:46 An air quality index of 1,000
02:10 Over the pass, the air clears
02:32 The ferry to Victoria
02:49 The Thoons put a spell on the crowd
04:05 A day in person with Josh Anderton
04:28 There's no equal to working beside somebody
04:59 Catching up with Mike Vardy
05:34 Don't take clean air for granted
Episode 22