Haze

A word that comes up more often on the weather forecast than "cloudy" and almost as often as "sunny" around here.

Formed through a combination of dust, heat, smoke, pollutants, and the interesting geography of being near the Gulf, the haze here comes thick and often.

It settles down onto the Earth like a cotton and down blanket. It blurs the eyes, fills the lungs, and slows the movement. Feeling like you are walking through a mist of semi-liquid air, the haze envelopes your body in its warm familiar embrace.

The dust that floats carelessly through the haze turns to a thin layer of mud on the evanescent beads of sweat on the skin. It forms into gritty slime on the teeth while it slowly fills the nose and ears.

The streetlamps at night throw their glow into the haze to no avail. The light is stopped before it touches the ground, and a large globe around the bulb is formed from the haze, looking solid enough to touch. Like giant balloons or suckers lining the streets.

The haze is a fact of life, and something that will be odd to live without.