Re: Australian dust storm

"Jack Campin - bogus address" <bogus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:bogus-7F3A76.23130723092009@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Anyone here in the path of the huge Australian dust storm?

If so, how are your furries coping with it?

Right smack in the middle of it. Unfortunately I woke up late that day, but
colleagues told tales of waking up with red light streaming through the
windows, and wondering whether it was Armageddon, or the martians had
landed. There would be lots of photos on-line, try www.abc.net.au/news and
follow the links for examples.

By the time I got outside, the sky was more of an orangey yellowy brown, and
visibility was extremely poor - I'd be guessing it was down to at least
500m, maybe less. And the wind - the wind was the worst. It was extremely
gusty, one second it was still and the next the wind was howling; hot, dry,
and full of the fine choking powder that got into *everything*.

The car was *covered*, and my usual mid-blue camry was made of the same
orange-yellow-borwn stuff, and there was no way I could have seen out of the
windscreen without cleaning it off. It didn't just rinse it off with water -
just throwing a bucket of water at the screen removed the 'bulk' but a fine
stcky sheen stayed on, and had to be *wiped* off with the wipers. My other
windows, being more vertical, had less actual dust, but because it had also
rained there was great globs of dried mud, and this also had to be *wiped*
off. I have a photo on my cell phone of the car before I washed it, but
currenlty the cell phone and the USB cable are having an argument and I'm
not paying the $5 in data-fees to e-mail it to myself.

At work, one of the jobs i have to do is examine the steel roofings sheets
we make after they've been exposed to the elements - sometimes I even get to
look at stuff through a powerful microscope. It just so happened that
yesterday was a day where I had to use the 'scope and got some awesome (to
science nerds at least) pics of the dust that was coating everything. It was
kinda scary that the bulk of the particles were less than one micron in
size - thats getting into dangerous territory.

My asthma really flared up so I spent most of the day inside, avoiding the
dust. Suki never goes out and rarely if ever shows even the slightest bit of
interest at what lies beyond the doors. SInce she's deaf as well, she
remained blissfully unaware that the wind was howling - it was a normal day
for her.

Pickle on the other hand was just busting to go outside. He bolted out, as
soon as I opened the front door, and was out whilst we washed the car down
so I could drive to work. But he bolted back in as Cary & Joel went back
inside - and he looked most unhappy to have his beutiful, pristine white fur
all contaminated with the stuff. If it tasted even a quarter as bad as it
smelt (and you couldn't help but smell it), he would have had a very
unpleasant bath after that. Apprantly he didn't bother to try The Out for
the rest of the day, and was a little hesistant this morning, too, even
though the skies were a deep blue once more.

Everything that hasn't had something move over it is still a funny
yellow-orange-brown colour. Even tarmacked roads are brown, with two black
stripes each side where tires have swept the dust from there.

It was a spectacular sight - one that I have no wish to witness ever again.

Yowie
(picture will be posted when I get the USB cable working again)
--
If you're paddling upstream in a canoe and a wheel falls off, how many
pancakes can you fit in a doghouse? None, icecream doesn't have bones.


.

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