I am participating in The Two Writing Teachers' Slice of Life Story Challenge, writing every day during the month of March. My theme this year is "Outdoors".
There is a saying here in Texas that if you stick around for five minutes, the weather's bound to change.
I woke up to rain spattering the dining room window. My thoughts immediately went to the conversation I had with a student about the forecasted red flag warning for today. "This rain should really decrease the fire hazard," I thought as I made my pre-dawn coffee. It was still dark and misting as I walked into school two hours later.
This is what I walked out to at five pm:
The sky was a monotone greige everywhere I looked. Smoke? Saharan sand? I couldn't tell, but it brought back memories of El Paso brown-outs, winds whipping the dust under our windowsills and into eyes and mouths. Only there wasn't any dust I could feel now, just the wind gusting and that dull, eerie sky.
There was a pileup next to my driveway at home:
My son swears it was sunny most of the day, but since I work in the "bomb shelter", I didn't get to see a single ray of sunshine. The wind was still blowing when we headed to IHOP for our traditional Mardi Gras pancake meal...and the lights went out while we were there. Five minutes later, they came on again to cheers from the packed restaurant. One of the waitresses said it was the second time that had happened today. Weather related? No rain now, no lightning...
Just a weird weather day here in Central Texas.
West Texas was blustery again. I'm so glad tomorrow it's supposed to be less windy.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the dust is even worse in your town. Fingers crossed there's no fire involved!
DeleteThrowback to wind whipped hair and chewing dust. My throat felt it. Canceled my afternoon walk and I did not feel an ounce of guilt.
ReplyDeleteIt was so weird, Alice. I don't think I've seen anything like that in forty years here!
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