Game called on account of... smog?!?

What would be a beautiful view of the San Fernando Valley from the 210 Highway -- if the smog didn't blurrify everything into an indiscriminate and unhealthy haze.

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All right, now we've seen everything. In Michigan, sporting events are regularly cancelled because of weather: lightning, tornados, heavy snow, ice storms. But what could possibly get in the way of outdoor sports in California? Perfect weather, year round, right?

Well, last year we found out that games can get cancelled because of... record flooding. We're talking century-level records here, as the water gushed out of the sky for weeks, gushed down the mountains, turned the streets into rivers, and soaked the soccer fields into mudpits.

Today, as we anticipated another great Saturday of AYSO soccer, we got a call informing us that all games and practices are cancelled for the weekend because of... air quality. Yes, that means smog. Particulate matter. According to the National Weather Service, children should not breathe outdoors in the San Fernando Valley this weekend. They certainly should not huff and puff through soccer matches. Read that again: it's not safe, where we live, to breathe the air outside.

Don't believe it? Check this out. See the red "unhealthy" level? That's our alert level this weekend.The current pollution levels may have something to do with the acres of scrub fires burning right now uncontrollably in the hills around us. The pink-orange glow in the evening resembles, sort of, a Michigan sunset. But "fire season," as they call it here, isn't the only issue. There are also the 16 million smog-producing SUVs zipping around on LA's highways. And the Santa Ana winds that make the Valley feel something like the inside of an oven with a fan.

Sigh. Now what do we do? Play CandyLand indoors and bake cookies to comfort ourselves till the smog lifts?

Thank God for netflix.