Today the sky turned yellow

Late last night it was windy--very windy. It was one of those nights where the wind howled so much that you woke up and hoped it would end. It used to howl like that in Chicago, but when the wind stopped there was nothing left to be done, but pick up the patio furniture that was scattered on the lawn and finding the trash cans halfway up the street.

In Kuwait, there was more fun to come.

I arrived at work at about 7:30. There was no blue sky. It looked foggy outside, but it was not fog. When the wind picks up the sand from the desert is lifted into the air and you get a dust storm. So as the morning progressed, visibility continued to fall. One by one, the buildings outside my window disappeared. Dust was everywhere.

In the desert people comment on the beautiful sunsets. One reason is that dust in the air scatters the light and you a nice bit of color. When you have a lot of dust, you get a lot of color.

So after visibility dropped to zero, the color outside my window changed. First it became brown and quite dark and then it turned orange. It was if you were outside an industrial building near a neon lamp which had a pale orange glow sort of filled the foggy air. It surrounded and enveloped you. After a few minutes the color turned to yellow. A bright yellow that radiated through my windows dulling the bright red on my walls and creating odd contrasts to the many colors on my monitor.



It was freaky.