So I woke up to another odity this morning. As I exited my room and walked into the hall I noticed once again that the light coming in from the windows was dark orange. It was eerie and I thought that it was just another sandstorm, but I was mistaken, this was a Shamal (pronounced shuh-mall). A Shamal is a big, low lying, widespread sandstorm that lasts for several days. This is to be distinguished with a Haboob (pronounced hah-boob) which is a tall powerful sandstorm that passes rather quickly. Rumor has it and Wikkipedia has written it that there are 3 Shamals that occur between the end of May and the end of June. They signify two things. First, that the seasons are about to change, and second, when the third and most powerful of the Shamals passes through (expected at the end of June), its going to get very very hot here. [I was apparently misguided because I already thought it WAS very very hot here. I was wrong.]
SO this Shamal has covered everything with a thick vanere of sand to the extent that I just took a shower and the water running down off of my hair was orange. People's flight suits are orange. People's skin is orange. My buggers...are orange! (Maybe a little too much information, sorry). But as you know, I love weather phenomenon like this so I think my orange hair is cool.
Another large camel spider sprinted its way into our building, which makes 3 in the last week!
I've made it to season 3 of Desperate Housewives! When I get off work I watch a few episodes before bed. The season finale of season 2 was really good, now I'm catching up with season 3. This sounds like a pathetic way to spend my nights (I'm still working out though), but I'm hooked and it makes me laugh. Will Susan ever get with the plumber? Will he ever come out of his coma? Will Brie VandeCamp ever reunite with her gay son, or have another nervous breakdown? And what about Mrs. Solice's baby? and Carl cheating on her with the maid? Hmmm..... my life is sad. I used to do exciting things in Hawaii and now I live vicariously though a TV show. I guess I forget sometimes that I'm living here in a warzone and my job can sometimes be vicarious too.
Anyway, been keeping busy and life is good. Taking care of my Marines and passing the time. Another case of the mysterious Iraqi rash today with one of my Marines....oh, and the picture...one of my Soldier's Angels sent me Marine and Navy rubber duckies, so we played with them for a little while (is that weird?).
9 comments:
You and your weather Phenomenon! Well, glad to here there are status quo. That might be boring but better than chaos. Anyway we are in June, Summer has begun. No love in the air yet but crossing my fingers. LOL! Thats about it. SEE YA!
V
No worse than people living their lives vicariously through soldiers they support. I should know, after all is said and done, I'm still one of those people. You're completely sane, I'm the one who's not.
Wow! If anything RJ, relish in the Shamal since I highly doubt you will ever experience anything remotely like that again. If anything, perhaps your time in Iraq will be the pinnacle of your meteorological fetish. :-) Why not?
As for the duckies...hell, I'd play with them. I'd play with them *now*. Then again, I live in EBF Indiana, which is sort of like Iraq without the violence. Oh, and it's going on day 56. How about you?
Feelin' the love from southern IN,
Jan
xox
Ahhh...no fair I want a pair of navy and marine rubber duckies, even though I have no bath. Well it is good to hear you are well and I am curious about these camel spiders are they anything like the scary cane spiders here?
RJ, I love the duckies. I really gotta find some so I can play too. I currently have 2 children blowing "strawberries" on my arms so I think watching Desperate Housewives might be saner. Anyway, I too am living vicariously through your Iraqi journey. Now I must go look up camel spiders.
OMG, I just looked up camel spiders at http://www.camelspiders.net/ and I am horrified. Do we need to send you some sort of animal trap?
RJ,
I really enjoy all the weather stories, I can't believe it's going to get even hotter there! I guess I won't be complaining about the weather here in southern IN. The high tomorrow is 90 but that's still alot cooler than where you are.
Stay cool
Debby
SA
you know how your brother-in-law is also into weather phenomenon...i'm sure he will be jealous when he reads about the sandstorms!
Kelly's right - although you get completely covered in sand and dirt, I think it would be really cool to actually walk through a sandstorm. The only dirt in the air here is from the tons of cars on the Northern Virginia highways.
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