“Bad weather makes for good photography.” ~ Ansel Adams

“Oh, That Wasn’t A Bit Nice. You Have Made Me Very Angry. Very Angry Indeed!”Marvin the Martian

The sun and sky in my backyard with the haze.

The last three to four days around here have been crazy weather-wise. I should have known something weird was coming when I left my house on Monday morning to go to the gym and I smelled smoke. I didn’t give it much thought then, but as Monday turned to Tuesday, it continued to worsen.

Three days removed from Monday, the haze continues and has provided a view of this area that I can’t remember ever seeing. Yesterday afternoon (Wednesday), it truly looked like the pictures you see of Mars. Barren and red, I almost half expected Marvin the Martian to come hang out with me!

If anything, that last comment should date me…

The view of Lake Mahopac from the beach of a local country club.

Same view as above.

I decided that I would take some before and after photos to show how out of control this haze is. I rarely watch the local news these days, but I wanted to see if they had an idea of how long it would last and when we might see a return to June’s normal sticky and nasty days. As with most everything else on the news these days, it was all doom and gloom. Time to turn it off…

A slightly different view from the beach.

Looking out at Lake Mahopac from the parking lot of Four Brothers Pizza.

More haze…

Could this be a run-up to the apocalypse? Could we be looking at the end of the world? Of course, I say that with a certain amount of sarcasm, but sometimes you have to wonder.

Could this have happened at a worse time? I wonder about that as well. As if breathing wasn’t difficult enough at times in the Northeast of the United States during “normal” summer days, Now they are saying that due to the severity of the forest fires in Canada, this could continue on and off for some time. This could make for an interesting summer of hiking.

I can tell you that for the first time in my life, I am actually listening to the warnings that are saying if you have health issues, you should just stay inside!!

Anyway, hopefully in a couple of days this will run its course and we can get back to a haze free life! Stay tuned for pictures of the same areas on a nice clear day.

HAPPY HIKING!!!