Love design!!! I just came across your blog and wanted to say that Ive really...…and amber and pumpkin and rust and gamboge…
Posted by Erik Rupard on June 10th, 2008
I have mentioned in passing that we had some more flying sand this weekend. Although I think this blog had a bit of “sandstorm overload” initially, it’s been a while since I perseverated on this topic, and I have some new pictures for you.
Over the three-plus months that I have been here, I have noted that Al Asad sandstorms come in three different flavors. The first is the “mellow” kind which happens at least a couple of times a week, wherein the trees on main street sway to the southeast and enough brown dust flies up to make it very uncomfortable to be outside without wearing some of the nifty wrap-around goggles which the Army provided us upon deployment. (Or, even better, my geeky spaceman goggles, courtesy of Panoptyx corp and my own hard-earned $300.) This type-1 storm is happening outside even as I write this, and is fairly benign, usually passes by in a few hours, or overnight. It does ground planes, though.
The second type of storm is much more dramatic. The trees are bent sideways, tables and bus stops blow over, and a big massive sandbank slouches towards Al Asad, eventually climbing over, under and into all things. We have had about four of these since I have been here, with the first one I experienced being the worst, a total blackout. These leave a hefty layer of dust everywhere, and keep us all coughing like John Keats for a week or so.
This weekend, we had a storm of the most rare, third type, in which the air turns a truly bizarre bright orange color. There is a Grateful Dead song called Scarlet Begonias, and its storyline goes something like this: Boy meets girl. Boy loves girl. Boy loses girl. Boy has a psychedelic trip and forgets all about girl. In the last verse, the protagonist can’t help but notice that “the sky was yellow and the sun was blue.” Well, with sandstorm type #3, the sky is in actuality orange, and the sun…well, it’s not even visible.
Some snapshots of our “all-orange-all-the-time” storm this weekend:
This is a view of the corridor outside of our cans, where the showers, trash, and water pallets are located. I am standing about 10 feet away from the bathrooms in front of me. The time is 11 AM.
These are the force-protection barriers about twenty feet in front of me. Gives you an idea of the density of this dust.
This hearty marine braved the storm without any protective gear. I had him take a picture of me in my geek goggles, but it didn’t come out right.
I’m not sure what causes the type-2 storm to be brown and just plain ugly, and type 3 to be orange. Perhaps one type of wind stirs up a certain type of dust (i.e., only the lightest stuff on top)? Or maybe these storms are all the same, but some natural phenomenon (the angle of the sun, maybe?) caused the air to take on this hue. Either way, this put a bit of a damper on my sabbath, and though I have to admit that I debated whether or not to go out to church and risk eye, skin and respiratory badness, not to mention grit in all of my pores for the next week (showers notwithstanding), in the end, I had to go because I was teaching the lesson. When I walked in the back door and our group leader Manny Diaz saw me, he breathed a sigh of relief. There were five of us in attendance.
After church, I took advantage of the fact that I had the clinic truck, and that I was pretty sure no one would be needing at, as no one would want to go outside. At 2 PM, I drove around post a bit. By this time, some of the dust had settled, but the wind was still whipping a lot of it around. Some pix from that little excursion:
The main road on Al Asad. As you can see, even four hours after the above pix, the visibility is still very poor.
To get an idea of how hard the wind was blowing at the time of this picture, take a look at the Mitsubishi emblem on the hood, bent over to the right by the full force gale.
June 10th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
That is truly nutty! Thanks for the pics. It’s pretty surreal.
I wanted to tell you all about Maya’s blow-out at the swim meet tonight in SC but I’ll let her tell you all about winning both her heat in Backstroke and in Breast. Yeah, I’ll let her email you about that.
I actually ran into Mike Quin(n) or Dr. Quin as I called him as I couldn’t recall his first name. He promptly corrected me and told me to call him Mike. Anywho…he was at Al Asad before you were and said that it’s a good place to bide your time if have can’t avoid going over there. He also reminisced about those orange dust storms and I asked him about ‘River City’ and he confirmed what Steve Jordan suspected. Yes, it is a direct reference to The Music Man “We’ve got trouble, right here in River City. With a capital T and that Rhymes with…well you pretty much know it. He said they call it river city as the Tigris (or is it the Euphrates?) used to flow across Al Asad but changed course over time and recently diverts northward instead. I found this all very interesting. Good call Steve. At least I think it was Steve.
Well it’s been a long day…and night. Yawn.
Goodnite Erik. Mwah.
June 11th, 2008 at 7:51 am
thats crazy…
June 11th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Hey dad, that’s pretty insane. looks like during sandstorms your missing ” and BLUE! ”
BTW my job isn’t that great
unsanitary eating conditions + cranky ladies in their early 20s = not the best working situation
June 11th, 2008 at 8:32 am
And that was me, maddy who just posted.
June 11th, 2008 at 11:01 am
I’m with you on the working conditions thing, Maddy. Where I work:
- unsanitary eating conditions
- cranky 17 year-old boys with loaded automatic weapons
- surrounded by people who are actively trying to kill me
- have I mentioned the dust?
and, last but not least
- there’s no Target in town…
One small piece of advice, though: When the cranky ladies pay you, if the money is green, I’d take it.
Daddio
June 11th, 2008 at 11:25 am
hmm…they’ve been handing me purple money.
that’s wierd.
June 11th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Man, that is sand what am! Thanks for the pics! I just can’t imagine how mechanical things, by whatever name called, can possibly operate in this stuff. I can picture all those sliding, meshing, rolling, articulating surfaces being slowly ground down in oil and lubricants filled with abrasives. Don’t buy any of their mechanical equipment even at bargain rates! I guess you wouldn’t be able to drive home, anyway.
As you now know, Christian (Mr. Advanced Technology) got our (your) video computer camera set up so that we can see your smiling and familiar face when you call. Perhaps we could set up a specific time for a call from you so we can be ready. Is that the best way to do it? We really appreciate this bit of engineering perfection.
I marvel at all this technology that everyone seems to take for granted. It is a never ending source of amazement to me that it works so well. If you are still getting the WSJ, read the technology article by Lee Gomes in today’s edition. He asked people to write in and tell him what they would want in version 7 of Windows. The comments are ascerbic and biting and hilarious. There are so many haters of Microsoft…makes you proud. America is still great! Love and miss you, Doctor.