The air in this city is bad. Truly, it is. And it's not hard to understand why, once you know just how many people live out in the suburbs, and drive into town every day. And once you know that lots of the pollution from south of the border blows up this way (Ohio coal plants, apparently). All it takes is one good smog day, and you get it. Ew.

At the same time, as I blogged recently, cycling is pretty much the best way to get around. It's cheap, it's fast, and you get to know that you aren't part of the air pollution problem. However, it's also a great way to increase your suffering because of it.

I didn't want to be one of those people riding around with a filter mask on, but after less than a month here, I broke down and bought one today. It just seemed like the smart thing to do. I came down with some sort of cold last week, and the irritation in my throat just made me all the more aware of how yucky the air is. And when I was walking up from the subway this afternoon, and wanted to take a deep breath to centre myself, and realized that I was *afraid* to breathe deeply... well, I headed on over to MEC and bought myself my very own black mask.

I'll report back on how it helps...