Here by Glimpses Known

[wayfaringwordhack]

We've been enduring a sandstorm for two days now. The house is covered in dust, except where we have walked it off, then you can see--in the feeble, filtered light--where no one treads or crawls because of the dirt accumulated there. And if anyone questions my housekeeping, fine, but don't question my housekeeper. :P  She does a great job and was just here on Monday.  Thankfully she comes again tomorrow, but if the storm is still raging, it'll be as dusty a couple of hours after she leaves. The old windows and doors are not barricades but sieves.... And I'm just back from closing the French doors that lead onto the front balcony. The wind is so strong and the latches so weak, the doors get blown open every so often (as do some of the windows), letting in yet another dusting of dust.

Comments

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

We endured a sand storm when I lived in Las Vegas. Horrible thing.

I hope yours ends soon and that you're able to get the sand out of everything.

(Don't know why I put dust instead of sand the first time around.)

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

They are really nasty things, aren't they? The dust/sand gets everywhere. And even if we call it a sandstorm, it really is more like dust, which makes it even more unpleasant because it is so fine and passes everywhere.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Wow, this, to me, is like what snow must be to someone who grows up in the Maldives or Cameroon. I know about it, I've heard about it, but it's so *alien*. And you're experiencing it. The sand and dust everywhere, the air like that.

... I want to send you surgical masks to breathe through!

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Masks are not a bad idea at all. It is hard to sleep because you smell the dust everywhere. It was really pervasive in our room last night. J was able to sleep with a sheet over his nose, but I can't; drives me crazy to have something on my face. :(

[sunflower-sky.livejournal.com]

Us too. But now the rain is here... so it's mud everywhere.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Ick. Did the cold come with it? It was lovely and warm, but this storm is full of cold winds. We've lost 10-12 degrees.

[sunflower-sky.livejournal.com]

Yup. They were saying it might snow in Jerusalem again, but it didn't. Crazy winds though. Our power kept flickering out.

[clarentine]

Down side of lack of trees: a lot of dust to blow around! Those of us on the US East Coast often forget this side effect, since ours is an ecology that grows something (planned or un-) on every square inch of ground.

Does life there, for the locals, continue as usual? I would think pretty much everything that can would move indoors, but it strikes me there's a lot that can't move indoors. What do those people and businesses do?

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Those who can avoid going out do.

I let J take Sprout to her ballet lesson this afternoon, and I kept Junebug at home. DIdn't see any point in taking him out in it since it wasn't necessary. Funnily enough, out of the 12-15 girls in Sprout's class, 5 are expat kids... Today, all the expat kids were there and only one Egyptian girl.

[aeriedraconia.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's a lot of dust to filter the sunlight like that. Almost an alien atmosphere type effect. I hope your storm blows over soon.

When I lived in LV it was almost always windy and that blew the dirt around so you had a layer of grit on your skin and on the furniture constantly.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Yes, last night--despite not setting foot outside all day--I had grit in my teeth, almost as much as when I spent summers plowing on a tractor that had no A/C, meaning if I didn't want to sweat to death, I had to drive with the windows and door propped open. o.O

[oiktirmos.livejournal.com]

During the Dust Bowl one could receive a serious shock from touching a metal fence because of the dust. They used wet sheets over doors and tape around windows but could not keep the dust out.

Neat glimpse of a dust storm.
Hope it ends.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

I thought about taping things shut but knew it would be a waste of tape. :P