I Finally Realized I Have Been Stupidly Exposing My Allergy Prone Self To Texas Ozone Air Pollution

Occasionally I really amaze myself with how cluelessly dumb I can be. Really, it's true. Years ago, if I remember right, someone somewhere told me that they thought me to be really smart. Witty, smart and highly intelligent.

Well.

I know myself better than I know anyone else. I may be a bit witty, at times, but smart and highly intelligent? Not so much.

Example of my clueless dumbness.

For weeks now I have been whining about my allergic woes. I do this whining at the same time I mention going hiking or biking under the noon day sun.

Friday night I basically was unable to sleep, so miserable and clogged up was I from my allergic woes.

The next day, that being yesterday, as in Saturday, a light bulb finally turned on in my dim bulb, oxygen deprived brain.

At the same time that those who monitor such things inform me via various means that the air that I am breathing is polluted, I go out in it at the worst time of the day.

And then wonder why I have allergic woes.

Below is today's AIR QUALITY ALERT from the National Weather Service...

...AIR POLLUTION WATCH LEVEL ORANGE... 

AIR POLLUTION WATCH - LEVEL ORANGE - FOR DALLAS-FORT WORTH.

THE TEXAS COMMISSION ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY (TCEQ) HAS ISSUED A LEVEL ORANGE AIR POLLUTION WATCH FOR THE DALLAS-FORT WORTH AREA FOR SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2012.

ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO BE FAVORABLE FOR PRODUCING HIGH LEVELS OF OZONE AIR POLLUTION IN THE DALLAS-FORT WORTH AREA ON SUNDAY. OZONE LEVELS COULD REACH THE LEVEL ORANGE "UNHEALTHY FOR SENSITIVE GROUPS" CATEGORY.

ELEVATED CONCENTRATIONS OF OZONE CAN ACT AS A LUNG IRRITANT. INDIVIDUALS WITH CHRONIC LUNG DISEASE, SUCH AS ASTHMA AND EMPHYSEMA, AS WELL AS THE ELDERLY AND YOUNG CHILDREN, ARE PARTICULARLY SENSITIVE TO OZONE AND SHOULD ATTEMPT TO AVOID EXPOSURE. TO AVOID EXPOSURE, MINIMIZE EXERTION OUTDOORS DURING THE MID-DAY TO EARLY EVENING HOURS OR STAY INDOORS IN AN AIR- CONDITIONED ROOM DURING THIS TIME.

Clearly I have been in denial. Somehow thinking I am impervious to the threat posed by the air that I breathe. Also in denial that I am borderline being in that ELDERLY group the National Weather Service indicates has an increased vulnerability to Ozone.

So, from this day forth, there shall be no more noon day aerobic exercising, by me, in the outer world at my polluted location on the planet, until the National Weather Service indicates that the air that I'd be breathing in that outer world is no threat to my respiratory system.

I will continue to go swimming though. In the morning. Which I will do today, Sunday, the second Fall morning of 2012, as soon as the sun arrives to light up this forsaken, polluted place I call home.