Tales from the dustbowl
Firstly, a belated Happy Crowleymas to one and all. The 12th was also the sixth birthday of my LJ, so yay for me and my ranting, ramblings. I spent the day quietly, dealing with is hopefully the last of this flu.
My internet connection was down for about 36 hours; they are doing all sorts of road works & such, and my phone lines get wonky this time of year due to the rain… although we aren’t having nearly as much as we usually do; quite the opposite in fact. More on that below.
Now in WTF-ery…
Three dust storms in a month. Three. Storms the like of which I’ve never seen.
I am not a novice with dust storms, I grew up in Phoenix and have been in some really, seriously bad storms. They build up and a brown wall of oppressive dirt hits the city, reduces visibility to nil and then it blows on its merry way. Lasts maybe an hour, tops.
But THESE dust storms we’ve been having here in NSW… WTF? I’ve lived here almost nine years now and this is the first time I’ve seen a dust storm. They last for 12 to 16 hours. The sky goes all red and ugly and visibility is almost naught. Healthy people get sick- I saw one of my classmates have a nosebleed the day of the first (and worst) storm, and more than one person had been to hospital for treatment with breathing problems. People were told to not even go outside- it was that bad.
The second storm is the one that got me. It came out of nowhere, and I was having a morning nap on my lounge after tackling some big, boring techy reading I’d been assigned (but it was dull & dry as dust-LOL-and I’d been up since about 5am working on it.) So anyhoo, I wake up on the lounge, window open, covered in dust- and choking. Coughing. Can’t catch my breath. Then my throat began to hurt, I got a fever and the rest is flu history.
They said the dust is possibly coming up from the uranium mine sites in SA, so I indulged in a moment of paranoia. Then I sucked it up and just worked my way through the flu, went to class that evening and have spent most of the past ten days in bed or taking it easy.
Yesterday, another dust storm. Today a lot of wind and some dust- but enough that I got winded after walking half a kilometer into town to run errands. It’s getting old.
Oh joy, and now it is trying to rain, which means MUDSTORM. Gross. And I must go do a repair on the big aviary, those goofy birds have broken one of the big perches and they are quite vexed without it.
So with the dust storms & the economy, I can’t help but think a little about Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath”. May need to give it a re-read this week, after I finish my paper, and finish the big reading assignment, and wrap up one last business class. These school holidays have been so much holiday-like.
That’s all.
My internet connection was down for about 36 hours; they are doing all sorts of road works & such, and my phone lines get wonky this time of year due to the rain… although we aren’t having nearly as much as we usually do; quite the opposite in fact. More on that below.
Now in WTF-ery…
Three dust storms in a month. Three. Storms the like of which I’ve never seen.
I am not a novice with dust storms, I grew up in Phoenix and have been in some really, seriously bad storms. They build up and a brown wall of oppressive dirt hits the city, reduces visibility to nil and then it blows on its merry way. Lasts maybe an hour, tops.
But THESE dust storms we’ve been having here in NSW… WTF? I’ve lived here almost nine years now and this is the first time I’ve seen a dust storm. They last for 12 to 16 hours. The sky goes all red and ugly and visibility is almost naught. Healthy people get sick- I saw one of my classmates have a nosebleed the day of the first (and worst) storm, and more than one person had been to hospital for treatment with breathing problems. People were told to not even go outside- it was that bad.
The second storm is the one that got me. It came out of nowhere, and I was having a morning nap on my lounge after tackling some big, boring techy reading I’d been assigned (but it was dull & dry as dust-LOL-and I’d been up since about 5am working on it.) So anyhoo, I wake up on the lounge, window open, covered in dust- and choking. Coughing. Can’t catch my breath. Then my throat began to hurt, I got a fever and the rest is flu history.
They said the dust is possibly coming up from the uranium mine sites in SA, so I indulged in a moment of paranoia. Then I sucked it up and just worked my way through the flu, went to class that evening and have spent most of the past ten days in bed or taking it easy.
Yesterday, another dust storm. Today a lot of wind and some dust- but enough that I got winded after walking half a kilometer into town to run errands. It’s getting old.
Oh joy, and now it is trying to rain, which means MUDSTORM. Gross. And I must go do a repair on the big aviary, those goofy birds have broken one of the big perches and they are quite vexed without it.
So with the dust storms & the economy, I can’t help but think a little about Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath”. May need to give it a re-read this week, after I finish my paper, and finish the big reading assignment, and wrap up one last business class. These school holidays have been so much holiday-like.
That’s all.