What Is An Expat?

Man, it really has gone dusty outside. It’s a very fine dust, but as near as I can tell it’s blanketing the whole city. I think visibility is at 2-300m at the most. You can see fine close up, but you can’t see a damn thing beyond that. It doesn’t really seem to be a windy swirly kind of thing; it’s just sitting there. At least I don’t have contacts anymore, that’d well and truly suck. And the time counts down…

Greetings from God’s Hairdryer!

It was hot today.

(How hot was it?)

Thank you, lovely assistant!

Gather around kids, and let me tell you a true* story. I noticed it was a little warm in the tent today and went out to check the ECU setting. (more…)

http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/UZXX0019_f.html

Last night I stopped and looked at the sky as I do on occasion. Just sat and watched little twinkling lights fly around in the sky. Don’t know if you can see it there, but there’s a couple of planets showing up fairly brightly. I’m not sure which ones they are, other than assuming one must be the planet Venus. It’s very bright this time of year. There are quite a few lights out in the camp, but there is still quite the view to be had. It’s not as good as being totally away from civilization and seeing gajillions of stars, but it’s pretty good.

I discovered mountains today! Down south there’s a whole range of ’em! (more…)

(not that I’m actually going to get into the anatomy parts mind you, it’s just a phrase)

I may or may not have previously mentioned the shower situation here. You’ve got a tent with curtained off showers in the center, and metal mirrors and sinks bracketing them.

So the other night I wander in for some gettin’ o’ the clean. They had the heaters just blasting, it must have been at the very least 80 degrees in there, contrasting with the upper 30s and rainy we’d had all day. I noticed it because well, it was really hot in there, and the past few days previous the heaters had been off.

Off to the shower: I put the shampoo and soap up in the metal shelf that serves as a holder. I do the cold water test — turn on a bit of water to check the temperature. Certainly don’t want the massive cold water shock. Well, as it turns out, at least I was smart enough to develop a procedure on that…IT FAILS MISERABLY! Obviously it didn’t come out ice, but it was close enough. (more…)