Peak burning season has arrived. Without rain, there will be smoke in the air almost every evening until fall. It was a long, smoky night in North St. Paul. It gets much worse than this.
3:15 PM: Very faint grass smoke coming in the windows and ruining what was a beautiful afternoon. 69 degrees and beautiful except for the yard waste smoke.
3:50 PM: Faint grass smoke. The illegal yard waste burner has caused the windows to be closed. Thanks, asshole, wherever you are.
4:30 PM: No smoke. I saw that asshole frequent burner was burning as I was heading back home. Maybe he could have been the source of the illegal yard waste burning an hour earlier. Or it could have been someone else. There are more people burning yard waste in North St. Paul now than there was ten years ago. Burning encourages more burning.
5:00 PM: Moderate wood smoke from the asshole frequent burner. The wind shifted and we get to breathe polluted air. North St. Paul sucks!
6:05 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke from asshole frequent burner. The wood he burns has a distinctive smell unlike wood burned by anyone else. I don't even need to drive behind his house to know when he burns. If the wind is right it comes down here into our windows and into our lungs.
7:25 PM: No smoke. The wind must have shifted again. Asshole frequent burner usually burns from three to five hours at a time. I would say he is still burning.
8:40 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke different from before. This is the more typical smoke produced by bonfires. The bonfires are starting now. Asshole frequent burner burns early and by the time his wood smolders itself out is when the other bonfire burners start burning.
9:45 PM: There is a very faint trace of wood smoke in the air. The wind must have shifted again giving us a temporary break from the toxic poison air in North St. Paul. I can hear loud voices off in the distance. Sounds like a party. They may be doing the burning.
11:40 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. Smoky air is back.
This is how we live in North St. Paul. Do you want to live in a city like this?