Rain Please
Oct. 22nd, 2007 08:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
danalwynWe need rain. Desperately.
Or at least cool weather, but we won't get that until Thursday according to the weather reports.
The air is so dry that one cannot wear loose pants. They stick to your legs, clinging like your small hairs were actually a thick mat of velcro, so dry that opening one's mouth for too long leaves you in danger of drying out your throat, so dry that you can leave your wet laundry out and it will dry within hours. And always the wind keeps blowing from the east, pounding against the structures, blowing anything loose, even chairs, across the concrete that it has already swept bare. And with the wind comes the smell, the ever-present smell that chokes you, that keeps you inside, hiding from the implications, and the thick layer of ash that will no doubt begin to rain down soon. It is so thick with smoke here that it is all you can taste, all you can smell. It becomes your world, seeping into every nook and cranny until there is nowhere left to hide from its omnipresence.
School is technically closed today, due to air-quality issues, and the fact that many of the staff and faculty have already been evacuated, but that rule never applied to graduate students. So in a few minutes I will go into work, because my only other option is to sit here and watch the mandatory evacuation line creep closer and closer and wonder how many towns will be destroyed this year. At least there's air conditioning there.
And there's nothing any of us can do but wait for the cool winds to begin to blow again.
Or at least cool weather, but we won't get that until Thursday according to the weather reports.
The air is so dry that one cannot wear loose pants. They stick to your legs, clinging like your small hairs were actually a thick mat of velcro, so dry that opening one's mouth for too long leaves you in danger of drying out your throat, so dry that you can leave your wet laundry out and it will dry within hours. And always the wind keeps blowing from the east, pounding against the structures, blowing anything loose, even chairs, across the concrete that it has already swept bare. And with the wind comes the smell, the ever-present smell that chokes you, that keeps you inside, hiding from the implications, and the thick layer of ash that will no doubt begin to rain down soon. It is so thick with smoke here that it is all you can taste, all you can smell. It becomes your world, seeping into every nook and cranny until there is nowhere left to hide from its omnipresence.
School is technically closed today, due to air-quality issues, and the fact that many of the staff and faculty have already been evacuated, but that rule never applied to graduate students. So in a few minutes I will go into work, because my only other option is to sit here and watch the mandatory evacuation line creep closer and closer and wonder how many towns will be destroyed this year. At least there's air conditioning there.
And there's nothing any of us can do but wait for the cool winds to begin to blow again.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-22 03:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-22 04:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-22 04:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-22 04:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-22 04:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-22 04:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-22 04:31 pm (UTC)Actually, because most of live close to campus, we basically have no excuse up until the moment that they evacuate campus. Besides, without those pesky undergrads, it's easier to get work done.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-22 10:57 pm (UTC)