Sandstorms

On a recent trip north a few hundred miles, I was delayed from coming back slightly by weather. Back home in Minnesota, snow delays are quite frequent. Here, although it was a sand delay, it felt in many ways very similar....

As you step out of your room in the morning it seems as though you put on orange-tinted glasses. Similar to the white-wash effect of a snowstorm, the sand and dust in the air makes everything appear orange.

Stinging the eyes and lungs, you walk out to the shower trailer to clean up. On the return walk, you are covered in sand again anyways, but at least it was a new layer.

Driving requires windshield wipers and headlights, as visibility is about 10 feet in front of you. Navigating through this dark and unfamiliar landscape is eery to say the least. Seems like an apt start to a horror movie.

If you wipe anything off, it just gets covered again in minutes. The Sun is blocked out, making it seem like dusk all day long, and making the darkness of night as thick and black as the oil that's in the ground around you.

But, just like snowstorms, it's only temporary, and you are able to come back home, or to the base you call home, a few days later.