Sunrise 17 Sep 08
Such a change from yesterday! Still a little hazy, off in the distance, but beautiful silvery-gold shimmer on the water, and the temperature still hasn’t broken 100°F – the weather is shifting, you need only the eyes to see!
Thanks be to God for a beautiful day in Kuwait!
Big Blur Sunrise
By the grace of God, I have been up since 5 this morning. Once I stopped jet-lagging, it was no longer so easy to get up and exercise. I have been hating myself, knowing I really NEED this, but not enough to actually do it.
So I prayed. And there I was this morning, wooo hoooo, wide awake at 5. I got up and went to the pool, which was CHILLY, and I exercised. I had a note from my niece, Little Diamond giving me lots of encouragement yesterday – thanks, Little Diamond, I think it worked!
I was waiting for the sun to come up, to take a photo, but all I have is this big grey-yellow blur. Whatever is in the sky – dust? sand? – the sun cannot break through it. At 0600, however, it is still only 88°F / 31°C, and comfortable.
Whatever is in the air is worse now than it was an hour ago. Yesterday, my left eye felt like it had a piece of sandpaper in it; people tell me they get that all same thing all the time, or headaches. Thank God, I don’t have a headache, and today my left eye feels better but my right eye feels a little gritty. What is this???
I have a million projects lined up today, and time to do them! I love it when I get up early; the day has more hours, I get more done!
Hang in there, my fasting friends. Today is supposed to be a little cooler than it has been – only 105° F / 41°C – not the scorching temperatures of earlier in the week, and apparently not the humidity, either.
Dusty Sun
Here is what the sun looks like on a dusty morning in Kuwait. I can’t call it a sunrise; it is too high in the sky, up for too long, but it just broke through:
Isn’t that a sad little sun?
Good morning, Kuwait! 🙂
Sunrise Meditation
Good morning, Kuwait!
I had to go out on the balcony this morning to take the sunrise photo; my windows are so streaked with dust and humidity that I can’t find a place clean enough to shoot through! I got a delightful surprise – the morning was comfortable! For a brief time, as brief as it may be, there is no humidity, and the temperatures are falling. “Falling” in this case means maybe down in the 80’s F., LOL, but comfortable!
Actually . . . it was lovely!
You can see, we have that suspicious dark layer hanging over the horizon, hmmm. . . . .looks suspiciously like pollution. Anyone having trouble breathing?
The verses for today’s meditation are from the Psalm for today, Psalm 62:
Those of low estate are but a breath,
those of high estate are a delusion;
in the balances they go up;
they are together lighter than a breath.
10Put no confidence in extortion,
and set no vain hopes on robbery;
if riches increase, do not set your heart on them.
11Once God has spoken;
twice have I heard this:
that power belongs to God,
12 and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord.
For you repay to all
according to their work.
Have a great day, Kuwait.
Girgian Surprise
The doorbell rang.
No one rings my doorbell. The doorman always calls to let me know if a visitor has arrived.
“Who’s there?” I called out.
“It’s GIRGIAN!” a chorus of voices rang out.
Girgian is a children’s holiday, a little like Hallowe’en, about half way through the month of Ramadan, when costumed children come and ring your bell and are given sweets, sometimes money. If you are really lucky, they sing a song. My understanding is that normally the children go around to their families, like aunts and uncles and cousins, and to close neighbors.
I had had a full day, and I had more to do. I had come home and showered because I was no hot, and then – I had gotten into my lightest nightie so I could continue working in comfort. What to do???
Thank God, there was an abaya hanging in my hallway, and I grabbed it and flung it on as I headed to the door. In come eight gorgeous little Kuwaitis, all English speaking, all dressed top to bottom in gorgeous finery, bright thobes and prayer caps, beautifully hand woven bisht with gilt trim, dresses with embroidery and lace and gilt skirts, golden headdresses – oh! They were gorgeous!
No one has ever come for Gergian before. I didn’t have anything prepared. Thank God AdventureMan has a sweet tooth, and thank God, they were polite and appeared delighted with handsfull of Oreo cookies and marshmallows, which were all I had.
Some days, you just never know when a blessing will appear. Those darling children made my day.
These are not the children who came to my house, but I found this on YouTube, posted, thanks be to God, by fellow Kuwait blogger Chikapappi! Thank you, Chicki!
This is what Girgian costumed children in Kuwait look like, and how cool, they are singing!
Rapists Arrested
From today’s Arab Times:
2 wanted Bedouns involved in ‘rape’ case held
Kuwait : Personnel from the Law Enforcement Department have arrested two Bedouns who had been sentenced in absentia for life imprisonment with hard labor for their involvement in kidnapping and raping an unidentified expatriate woman, reports Al-Anba daily.
The daily did not give more details.
I don’t know how the system works here, but it is a great step forward when rapists are arrested and jailed. These two have already been convicted, so we can hope they will be off the streets for a while.
“You Read the Policy?”
“You read the policy?” the insurance lady asked, and I could hear the laughter restrained in her voice.
“Yes, I did. It doesn’t cover much! With all the restriction, the flood insurance has to work together with the high wind insurance, and it seems to me I need to put the majority of my coverage there,” I replied.
“I’ve just never had a customer before who actually read through the policy,” she responded, her voice still bordering on laughter.
She and I get along great. She helped me out when a company refused to insure our Florida house, a year after all the insurance agencies had taken a major battering from an onslaught of hurricane losses.
I hate reading policies. Do you ever read through your credit card agreements before you sign them? Do you read through the restrictions on software before you download it? Do you know what your insurance REALLY covers?
Sometimes the cheapest policy isn’t always the best – it depends on how good they are when you need to make a claim. Even if you read the policies, it isn’t always what-you-see-is-what-you-get. You also need to check a company’s reputation for claims adjustments.
So far, we have been very lucky. We’ve never made a claim on our auto insurance; any accident – and there haven’t been many – have had only small damage, usually covered by the other person. The only accident I have had in the Middle East was when another American woman rear-ended me on the little road into our compound. The only claim we ever made on a house (we came home from a trip to discover a water pipe had broken) was wiped out by the deductible we had chosen, so we didn’t make the claim.
House insurance freaks me out. The power of almighty God is in a hurricane; a beautiful house can be nothing but shards and embers in no time at all. If you own a Florida house, you have to have separate policies for fire, for liability, for high wind (hurricane) and for flood. The total cost of all those insurances is about equal to one house payment. The fact that all my coverages come due during hurricane season works to my agent’s advantage.
You can track any hurricane/tripical storm in the world at Weather Underground.
Daddy’s Little Girl’s Car
When we saw this car, AdventureMan and I both just about died laughing. Look at that color! It is Barbie Doll pink! I don’t know if you can see, but it SPARKLES! Oh, look at those fabulous matching wheels!
Only two doors, but some carrying space in the back . . . only a Daddy or a doting Sugar Daddy would buy a car like this for his little girl!
Streaky Sunrise
Circumstances had me up and about just before the sun was rising this morning, but I was filled with despair – how can I shoot the sunrise through these streaky windows? The men will be coming soon to wash the outside – more than 200 square feet of glass in our living room – the windows make up almost an entire wall.
The humidity of the last week made them damp and sticky, and then the sand storm blew in. The results are a disaster for my windows, now caked with burned on dust and grit, all streaked as the windows shed the day’s humidity.
This is what the windows look like:
This is what the sunrise looked like at 0h-dark-thirty this morning, through my streaky windows:
Here is what is going to happen. The men will come and wash my windows – but not until the day before the next humid day followed upon by another sandstorm. I will have about six hours to enjoy my beautiful diamond-sparkling-clear windows before they streak again. 😦
There is not a cloud in the sky. Weather Underground: Kuwait forecasts that today will reach 111°F / 44° C this afternoon. For my non-Moslem friends, try eating breakfast while it is still dark, early in the day, and then trying to get through a day like today without eating, drinking, smoking or coffee. God willing, there will be no humidity, which just saps the energy right out of everyone. God willing, because it is Saturday, most people will be able to stay at home and off the roads while they are fasting.
I had a man almost drift right into me yesterday in downtown Kuwait; I think he fell asleep as he was driving. Of course when I tapped my horn lightly to let him know he was drifting, he woke up and was all embarrassed and drove off with a roar, maybe to show me he hadn’t been sleeping, I don’t know, LOL. Mostly I try to stay off the roads myself.
Keeps Me Humble
The very few people who know that I blog sometimes ask me “How do you get such high statistics?”
The simple truth is, my very highest attracting post, even one year later, gets the most hits. It isn’t about the content, it’s about the birthday cake photo. How humbling is that?
WordPress allows us to look at our posts in terms of the last seven days, the last 30 days, the last quarter, the last year and all time. Because I love statistics and trends, and what numbers can tell us and how they can mislead us, I love it that WordPress has added all these features. (They have also added technical features that outstrip my abilities and my desire. I want to keep it simple – just writing on some days can be hard enough for me.)
So here is a look at my all time high scoring articles:
Recent Comments
ExpatAlien on What Country am I Living … intlxpatr on Yellowstone: Old Faithful to C… Michelle on Yellowstone: Old Faithful to C… Cathy on No Grown-Ups in Charge intlxpatr on Waiting for Snow Wikipedia Donate Button
Amazina
Early Voting in Florida
Here There and Everywhere 