Shamal

The mud is gone.  We had a pretty big thunderstorm last night, but it either didn't amount to much rain and was just all rumble, or the wind has been so strong since, that the mud has pretty much dried up already.  Either way, the mud is a thing of the past.  Now, we have dust...and plenty of it.

I learned a new word, shamal.  It means desert wind.  I think it should be redefined as so much dust in the air, if you open your mouth, your teeth get sandblasted.  It is ridiculous.  I am going to give you a couple of pictures.  The first I got from the Internet and it shows the dust/sand from above, the second is a photo I took outside of our Chus.  You can see that the sky looks crazy. 

The first time we had one of these dust storms, I was surprised.  The morning was sunny, we even had blue skies.  By noon, I could tell there was dust in the air, and it was windy.  By 2:30, when I stepped outside of my Chu, the sky reminded me of tornado weather.  It was an odd feeling.  I think it was the coloring more than anything else.  They say that the storms lose their strength at night, but last night around 8, I still wanted my sunglasses on when I walked to the Cadillac because the wind was still going strong.  On a positive note, Every bit of skin that has been exposed, has been blasted, so I saved a trip to the spa for a salt scrub.  Love, M.

P.S.  In previewing this post, I realized how brown everything looks here.  Yikes.