WE MISSED THE HABOOB
By one day.  But we got the residual effects when we returned to AZ.

If you haven't seen the pictures, the footage, the NBC report with Brian Williams then you should check it out.  It is simply unbelievable.

We've had dust storms.  In fact, we get little dust busters or mini-dust tornadoes all the time.  But nothing compares to this haboob.  Taken from Arabic where haboobs are more common, it means fiery wind.  I'm not sure where the fire part comes in.  I'd call it a dust wall.

Had we been privy to the storm, I think I would have feared cataclysmic results.  Imagine a 100-mile wide, one mile high rain storm.  Now substitute dust/dirt/sand, and I haven't addressed how thick it was to blot out the sun completely.  There was a Little Rascals' episode where the gang was camping out and an lunar eclipse happened when they were surrounded by wild Borneo jungle tribesmen that scared the snot out of me as a kid.  Much more so than the Abominable Snowman, Rodan, Godzilla, or The Blob.  I watched a ton of Rascals and I only saw that show one time.  The strange thing is, I really liked it.  I guess all kids like a good scare in the safety of their living room.

But that's what I would have felt had I experienced the haboob. Only worse.  I'm not sure my living room would have been enough of a sanctuary. And the clean up afterwards was bad enough.  When comes such another?  Never, I hope.

UPSIDE DOWN SOFT SHOULDERS

I don't know what to make of it.  Somebody ratcheted a road sign upside down.  And left their work.

It happens to be one of those signs that puzzles me anyhow.  Why are motorists being warned about shoulders anyhow?  Aren't they supposed to be concentrating on the road?  Why not just place more signs that aren't necessary?  How about "Check out the weird house on  the right", or Brad Pitt once drove this road in a 'vette. 

Now maybe I overstated  my premise, tried to get too many miles out of it, but  seriously, how many shoulders, soft or firm, have you ever used in your driving life anyhow?  When you did, weren't you smart enough to check and see if there was adequate room and not a quagmire you were pulling into?

Then to put the sign upside down for at least a short period of time, well, let's just say that was stupider than the sign.  It almost reminds me of a line a college friend of mine liked to try on co-eds.  It went something like this: "You don't know it, but this conversation is going to change your life."

If allowed to proceed, he added, "I want to be with you tonight.  If you go out with me, it will be unforgettable.  If you don't, you'll always wonder what it would have been like."

Right. As far as I know, it didn't work any better than the sign.

RETURN
Computer problem solved, for now.  Back from an East Coast journey, let the blogging continue.

As I was making the coffee this morning, I was distracted by the toaster giving off an alarm as it always does.  But I had been away from this particular toaster, so I miscalculated the number of scoops for the coffee and made it too strong. I'd blame it on my age, but I've always had a distraction problem.

When I taught (and I'll leave it at that; that is I won't add school: I mean who teaches school?  One may teach at a school, but everyone knows school, so I won't use that.  If I had added students, well that's almost redundant unless we're talking about animals and I never had any luck there) I simply couldn't have students talking, too.  One of us only.  And I'd be honest and tell them that I couldn't talk if they were.  If it was important what they were saying to a fellow student, then I would wait for them, but we both couldn't talk at the same time.  Maybe once I had a student take me up on that and finish his discussion, but he was the only one and so it worked for me for many years.  So, I won't blame my confusion this morning on geriatrics.

But it reminded me of Quincy, Mass, where we were last Saturday.  Besides being the home of President John Adams, Quincy also proudly houses Dunkin' Donuts University.  In fact, along the East Coast, they outnumber Starbucks and are much preferred.  I heard one Rhode Islander call Starbucks Charbucks because of the strong taste.  Another from Maryland called them FiveBucks because of the hefty price of their Java.

I prefer Starbucks and their breakfast sandwiches and their lemon cake pastry and their lunch sandwiches.  But I can down a donut from Dunkin' very easily.  Actually, one right name might just take the bite off my Charbucks this morning.