Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Wednesday, 7/18


Slowly but surely my voice is returning to normal. And I wonder if maybe, just maybe, I've figured out what caused it to go away in the first place.

Now, let me start off by saying I don't know if this is what caused my voice to go away. I have absolutely no proof that this is the cause, except for some highly suspicious timing. I don't know if this one thing could even cause someone's voice to go away. I'm not a doctor nor a expert on human biology. But since I have absolutely no idea why I lost my voice, this could be as possible a reason as any.

Why did I lose my voice? How about Marquette's new campfire law.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, the city of Marquette last year approved an ordinance that allows people to have small campfires in approved pits in their back yards. Before that, you couldn't have an open fire anywhere in the city. Being an urban dweller I never saw the romance of sitting by an open fire, but I suppose if you're out enjoying wilderness, or if you have a big yard where your neighbors aren't five feet away, maybe there's something to it. But in a city?

I dunno. Especially in our densely packed part of Marquette, where our backyard abuts five other backyards. Over the past week, when it's been warm, one or two of our neighbors have had fires roaring almost every night. And even when only one of them has a fire going, it makes the entire neighborhood smell like wood smoke, not a nice thing when, because of the warmth, you have to keep your windows open.

So that's why I'm not a big fan of the new campfire law. Even though our neighbors are doing nothing illegal, they're still making our entire neighborhood smell like a forest fire. It's legal; whether or not it's considerate is perhaps something the Marquette City Commission should've thought about when approving the law.

Anyway, like I said, the fires started on a nightly basis the middle of last week. By the end of last week I lost my voice. There could be absolute nothing to it other than coincidence. That's entirely possible. But a few days after they started I lost my voice, while having no other health issues. I wonder, if you sat down & figured out the odds, how often that would happen. Like I said, I don't know if there's a causal relationship between the nightly campfires (and whatever particulates, dirt, and whatever other gunk is in the smoke) and my lost voice. It's certainly possible that one has nothing to do with the other.

It just seems kind of interesting that one started right after the other.

It's also interesting that there haven't been any neighborhood fires the past few nights, and the past few days my voice has been getting better. Like I said, it could all be one big coincidence. There could be absolutely no connection between the two things. I could've lost my voice for a variety of reasons, and not just because of a decision made last summer by the Marquette City Commission.

It's just interesting the way it all works out.


No comments:

Post a Comment