Day of Hell Gate, 34th of Midsommar, 526 M.E. (Helios): The good weather in Georgia continued from yesterday, allowing me to enjoy a most pleasant 7.3-mile Jackson this afternoon. The only shade was thrown at me by the health app on my phone, which recorded less than the full eight miles I know that I walked based on the mile posts along my route. Whatever though, it's not a competition.

Peachtree Creek was nice and clear today. After last week's muddy flow, I could easily see the bottom of the creek as I crossed it on the pedestrian footbridge today. The water level peaked on May 29 and has dropped back to normal stage, and we've only had 0.01 inches of rain since then. With the return of clear water, children were once again playing on the rope swing and zip line strung across the creek. Also, following the rain that we did have last month, the drought in this part of Georgia has been downgraded from "extreme" to "severe."

As the super El Nino continues to develop in the Pacific, the Stable Genius' administration has responded by physically removing the system of oceanic monitors and measuring buoys in both the Atlantic and Pacific. No one's going to complain about the collapse of the AMOC if they can't measure it, amirite? It's one thing to ignore science but another to actually dismantle it. The mistakes this administration is making will be felt for decades to come. 

In other news, I'm appalled by the amount of plastic I recycle. Drinks in plastic bottles, salads in plastic cases with plastic inserts to keep the ingredients separate before use, the berries I make my smoothies from are in plastic tubs, my morning English muffin has a plastic wrapper. I try to diligently recycle them all, and can fill a sink each day with plastics ready to be taken out of the (plastic) recycling bin. There's no way I'm not consuming microplastics from all that packaging, and it seems like there's nothing I can do about it.