First Sunrise in March
Sunrise is starting to look a lot like summer – not so many clouds to make it more dramatic. We still have some clarity, the sky is still more blue and less hazy, but every sign is there that the cold winter is over and summer is well on its way. It is 48°F / 9°C, and there isn’t a cloud in the sky, only that wicked, poisonous haze hanging over the horizon.
Back to Work Sunrise
Last night, in the middle of the night, I thought I heard raindrops on the window. I was too drowsy to get up and look, but this morning I can see the pavement is damp and small almost-puddles, so I think we had a small shower, at least where I live.
The sky looks like it might turn blue, well above the horizon, but the horizon is thick and threatening – it almost reminds me of Fires of Kuwait, the award winning show at the Kuwait Science Center about the teams who put out the fires set by Saddam Hussein’s retreating forces as they tried to inflict one final devastation on the Kuwait economy. I can’t imagine what it must have been like here while the wells were being capped, and I wonder if anyone is keeping statistics on the history of health issues of those who were here during that terrible time.
It is 55°F / 13°C at 0700; Weather Underground: Kuwait shows no precipitation, so maybe I imagined it.
Liberation Day Sunrise
It is already 61°F / 16°C at 0800 in the morning – looks like another fabulous February spring day ahead . . . but maybe a little grey. It was grey at sunrise, grey an hour later, and grey even now. Do you think it might burn off?
Drama Queen Sunrise
Drama drama drama – there was a thick band of something on the horizon today, and then gorgeous fluffy clouds above. The sun couldn’t even fight it’s way through the sludge of the thick band, but finally, it began to rise above:
It is a warm 54°F/12°C early this morning and going up to 77°F/25°C at its peak today. Just warm enough – nor warmer, please!
Tired Sunrise
When I got up this morning I walked out to see how the sunrise was looking – and just had to laugh. You know how there are some mornings you wish you didn’t have to get out of bed? I think the sun was having that kind of morning, looks like he is struggling a little – it was just a tired sunrise this morning:
Cold February Morning Sunrise
It is a shivery 5°C/45° F in Kuwait this morning, made more shivery by a brisk wind that blows and makes all the flags along the roads, hanging from apartments, decorating villas, etc. flap dramatically in the wind. I am hoping that National Day and Liberation Day holidays will make the roads less travelled as I zoom around, but I have been warned to steer clear of the Gulf Road, where youngsters are spraying cars with colored spaghetti and foam.
No more sandstorm, thank God, although there still seems to be grit in the air; your face feels dry and covered with an invisible coating when you come inside.
The sunrise this morning was beautiful – sharp, clear and, when I ran to get the camera, it was pink, but by the time I got back 15 seconds later, it had gone more orange:
Sunrise 19 Feb 2008
“Not with a bang, but a whimper. . . ”
That tiny tiny bright speck you see is the sun fighting to shine through the clouds. It was only there for one brief moment – then gone! Maybe we will have rain today?
The gasp of brightness brought to mind T.S. Eliot’s poem, The Hollow Men (by clicking on the blue hypertext, you can go to a great website where it explains all the references in the poem.) Although it was written in 1925 – almost a century ago – it has a very modern feel to it. Your challenge for today – read the poem. Those with more time or interest – go to the website and read the references.:
The Hollow Men
I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us – if at all – not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
Let me be no nearer
In death’s dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer –
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom
III
This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.
IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.
V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
Struggling Sunrise 17 Feb 08
This morning, the sun had a real fight going just to break through the thick haze on the horizon. WeatherUnderground: Kuwait calls it a “light haze.” The temperature, at 0700 is one degree Fahrenheit LESS than Seattle at 8:00 at night. It feels COLD again!
43 °F / 6 °C
Light Haze
Slight Haze
The weather forecast for Kuwait today is “slight haze.” You’ve seen what normal sunrises look like. This is “slight haze.”
15 Feb2008 Sunrise
I bet you were sound asleep!
This is what it looked like:
The high expected for today is 68°F/20°C – Beautiful! Wish I could send some of this sunshine to the Pacific Northwest!
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