It's been cold and snowing in Virginia as we head to India -- this time I'm a tourist and Lon is on business. Even though I once spent four years in Minnesota, low teens (°F) seem cold! I can only imagine what this will feel like after spending a few years in the tropics.

Google "Vapi, Gujarat, India" and the first thing you will learn was that it was ranked as the fourth most polluted city in the world in 2007. Kinda scary, eh?

Lon says that now it's not THAT bad. Think L.A. in the late 60's / early 70's before the Clean Air Act and the EPA. No where near as bad as London or Pittsburgh circa 1950. (For a superbly written account of those "killer smogs", read Devra Davis' 2002 book, When Smoke Ran Like Water.) Contemporary Beijing is also much worse. In 1980 we thought about moving to Charleston, WV, when it was home to many chemical companies. There's even a suburb named Nitro. My home town neighborhood in Chicago also had it's share of pollution from coal-fired locomotives before the change to diesel in the 50's. Maybe this is just rationalization, but we'll see!

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There's definitely pollution in Vapi. But mostly it's dust. By the end of the day, everything is covered in a not-so-fine layer of dust. I can't imagine what the monsoons will bring!

We're nearly 60 and have been asked to relocate to India. The un-touristy part of India. And I've never lived outside the U.S. Should be interesting!