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.
Two Sunrises
Did you hear the wind blowing last night? I could hear it whistling; when I got up, at 3 a.m., it was one of those huge sandstorms. I quickly had to re-arrange some things so that they wouldn’t blow away, blow over, or crash with a mighty thud (the plants). Within minutes it had died back down again.
This morning, there is a big surf – well, big for a Kuwait that has had mostly glassy seas and golden sunrises the last week.
Here is yesterday’s sunrise:
Sunrise 7 September 2008
And here is today’s sunrise:
Sunrise 8 September 2008
It’s going to be another hot day, although I think the season is starting, barely perceptibly, to shift. No temperature for this week is in the hundred-and-teens. The forecast for today is 109°F / 43°C and for the foreseeable future, slightly lower.
Hooked on Sunrise
For those of you looking for something to contemplate, this morning’s sunrise was very different, very cloudy, and I couldn’t photograph it until the water had dried off my windows. This humidity makes life very sticky and stinky!
At 0700 it is a mere 88°F / 31°C.
Ramadan Sunrise
Still jet lagging, but not so badly. I can sleep from ten at night until almost 5 in the morning, now, and actually, I kind of like it. I really like being able to use the pool all by myself, no ooglers, everyone asleep, just me and the pool. And then, oh, I really really like watching the sun rise.
This morning, the pre-sunrise was glorious, too:
You know me, I have this thing about the sun reflecting on clouds. In the Pacific Northwest, that happens best at sunset, but here in Kuwait, I have my sunrises. 🙂 This morning’s sunrise, to welcome Ramadan, was sheer beauty:
The weather is cooling more at night – it is only 84°F/ 29°C at 6:30 this morning, but . . . the forecast is for a brutal 118°F / 48°C today, for the first day of Ramadan. Good day for a mid-day nap, if you have that luxury.
May Ramadan be generous to you.
Breathtaking Morning and The Olympics
What? You think I am going to talk about the China 2008 Olympics, but you are wrong, wrong, WRONG. After slogging through two days of on-again-off-again drizzle, light showers, and downpours, the sky cleared late yesterday, the sun broke through, and this morning, we had a breathtaking view of the Olympic Mountains. You might even notice there is a trace of SNOW on the mountains.
You gotta dress in layers. One minute you will be shivering, the next, when the sun comes out, you will be sweating. None of that matters – once the sun comes out, this place is gorgeous.
Superlative Day: Gone Fishing
I’ve had some great and memorable days in my life, and this is one of them. My good friend said “Hey, you want to go fishing Friday?” and I said “Yes!” I had to go get a one-day fishing license, and I could add crab for a mere 50 cents, so I did.
We met up at 6:30 a.m. and were on the water by 7 a.m. on one of the hottest day’s in Seattle’s summer. As we left the marina, we passed an Eagle. (We thought of you, AdventureMan!)
AdventureMan must have heard us talking about him, because as the sun rises, he calls from Kuwait, eating Felafel sandwiches and ice cream as we watch the sun rise:
And set the crab traps – this is what an empty crab trap looks like. We put turkey legs and old fish heads in the bait box to attract the crabs:
It is a gorgeous morning. As my friends dig out the fishing polls, I admire the mountains and the sparkles on the waters of Puget Sound:
My friend has baited my hook and hands the rod to me. I lower the weight to the bottom, pull it up just a little and – an immediate nibble:
He’s a good size and he’s a keeper. My friend grabs my camera to take my photo with my first fish of the day, I hold the fish up – and just as she is snapping the shot, the fish does a little flip right off the hook and back into the water!
It doesn’t matter – the fish are biting and we are hauling them in. Some are too small; we take them off the hooks and throw them back, telling them to have a good life, grow big and we will see them again, we hope!
After about an hour of superlative fishing, we go back to check the crab pots. They are HEAVY with crab!
You can’t keep any female crab, or any male under a certain size, so any crab you think you might want to keep, you have to measure. You get a HUGE fine if you are caught with undersize crab. As we bring in the crab and the fish, my friend notes them down on our licence records, which have to be sent in to the state at the end of the season, listing fish we have caught, crab we have caught, and how many we threw back.
We catch a couple rock crab – those you don’t have to measure, and you can keep. Most of what we catch is the sweet and delectable Dungeness Crab – my very favorite after Alaska King Crab.
We had just decided to quit for the day – it was getting really, really HOT for Seattle, like 90°F/33°C (and there is an advisory for hot weather, and air stagnation) and we have nearly our limit for crab, and a respectable amount of fish, and we are happy, happy fisherpeople! Just as I am about to raise my line, I get a big bite, and catch the last fish!
Here is our bucket, full of fish. The cooler is full of crab. What a great day to be alive.
Seasonal Change Sunrise
More clouds! Beautiful Tiepolo clouds! A Turner sunrise! And look, you can see almost all the way to the horizon. That nasty yellow-black band of (whatever it is) that hangs over the horizon on some days is gone!
It is 91°F / 33°C at 0530 in the morning – and it was still 98°F at 0300 this morning – imagine! No wonder most of the flights take off at night!
Qaatteri Cat’s Sunrise
The Qatteri Cat had the cat crazies as the sun came up this morning. Racing around the house, coming to our bed and saying “day has started! You don’t want to miss this!” and by the time I am up, I have to laugh, every carpet in the house is rumpled up from his scampering and racing about.
He was right. The humidity has disappeared, even if temporarily, my windows are clear (too clear, as you will see!) and it is a gorgeous sunrise.
Isn’t that GORGEOUS! No, not the photograph, the sunrise! Blue sky! Clouds! A hint, in the middle of summer, that winter is coming!
But this photo is the do-over. I took a previous photo. When I uploaded, I laughed out loud, and immediately took another – you can see why:
It is 97°F/36°C at 0700.
Steamy Sunrise
Last night, I was working on a project, and was wondering why sweat was just streaming off me – I wasn’t working THAT hard. And then I noticed the windows – it was as if we were in the middle of a rainstorm, only it wasn’t raining.
Ahhhh. . . . the humid days are setting in. Good for settling dust. Bad for getting anything done. Generating tons more laundry . . . two minutes outside, and you are soaked, from the inside out. Your sunglasses fog, cameras fog . . . not my favorite time of year.
This morning, WOW. It’s as if it were Seattle fog rolling over the water, except it is Kuwait steam – this is what sunrise really looked like – it’s hard to photograph steam when your lens keeps clouding. What looks like waves – you can’t even see the Gulf this morning, that is steam/fog, rising off the waters. The whole area is covered with rolls and wisps of steamy fog.
Early Dawn + Cold Spell
I happened to be up this morning pre-dawn:
So calm, so serene, and I just love that someone is out there fishing on the glassy waters. But it was WAAAYYY early, I went back to bed. . . no sunrise for me this morning.
WeatherUnderground shows a cold spell today:
But as you can see, it will head right back up there as the week progresses.
I am packing for another trip – one where we will be on a beach, but instructions on Virtual Traveller say “even the hottest summer day has cool nights, so bring a light jacket, long pants and shoes and socks.” I can’t wait!
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 