Breathing Dust

We're in Day 3 of a choking dust storm.  "Storm" isn't quite the right word, since that implies lots of wind.  There's hardly any wind.  Instead, the dust has settled in like a thick orange fog.  I didn't take the picture above (it's a year or two old), but it's accurate.  Yes, it really is that orange ... at least it is in the late afternoon.  If you spend any time outside, you need to wear a mask, or pull a bandana over your face, and wear a set of goggles.  I don't, of course, so when I go outside, immediately I feel the grit in my eyes followed a few minutes later by a heaviness in the chest.  And this morning I saw people out jogging in it!  What were they thinking??  Our temperatures, by the way, have been cooling off: highs of around 105 and lows around 80.

Some time ago, I noted that that I'd probably never get to drive while over here.  Wrong!  If you go anywhere in the International Zone, driving is often the best way.  Even though nothing is all that far from anything else, at least in a straight line, getting through all the security can mean long, roundabout routes in the heat.  So we drive.  My office has two armored Ford Excursions.  We took one over to a meeting this afternoon, and on the way back, I drove.  Quite an interesting experience.  If you can imagine what it would feel like to pilot a railroad locomotive that was outfitted with four rubber tires and a steering wheel, you'd have a good idea.  It's big.  It's HEAVY.  It has a big honking diesel engine that takes a long time to get going.  It's HEAVY.  It's filthy dusty on the inside.  It's HEAVY.  The windows and windshield are maybe an inch and a half thick, the doors weigh about 400 pounds apiece, and Lord only knows what the roof weighs.  All this mass is way up above the ground, so in the corners it leans so far you can scrape the doorhandle on the pavement.  And did I mention it was heavy?  To top it off, the roads here are for crap.  They're full of potholes, there are speed bumps everywhere, and in a lot of the compounds we're driving over dirt.  So we bounce a lot.  Imagine a diesel locomotive bouncing over a rough dirt road ... it would be in a kind of slow motion, wouldn't it?  Yep.  So, as you might imagine, our trucks are beat to hell.  The one I drove had less than 7,000 miles on it and feels like it's ready for the junkyard.  

But I'm not complaining too much.  I still got to drive, and it was quite fun.

The weatherguessers say we'll have one more day of this dust before it clears out.  Sure hope so.  I want to go for a jog again.

I think my body clock is finally finding its way to the right time zone.  The past two nights I've actually gotten a good bit of sleep.  And in a big important meeting this afternoon, with lots of high-powered VIPs in attendance, I didn't nod off until the very end.  Progress!