A Storm, A New Book, No Street Lights and the Internet

(Day 4 of 112)

Warning: Long Post

Yesterday evening, this desert city I live in currently was hit by a dust storm, the likes of which has not been experienced at least this summer. The very fact that it was a dust storm is sufficient to tell you that the main feature of this act of nature is dust. Lots of it. Very fine, annoying dust that covers every surface it can reach. And since the storm came about without any warning winds or drop in temperature or even cloud cover, everyone was caught unawares. Now in other places this would mean being caught without an umbrella and getting drenched. Here it means having to deal with a half inch layer of dust all over the house.

So there I was, photoshopping to my hearts content and watching yet another rerun of friends on tv, when the house was plunged into darkness (and an odd eerie silence). Then followed, howling winds, rattling doors and creaking windows (not to mention the onslaught of dust). By the time I ran around the house (three times) with a torch and checked on all the windows and doors, dust hung in the air and I was sneezing my head off.

After making sure that the kitchen and dining area was indeed a mini dust bowl, I grabbed a book I had bought just that evening and my book light and sat in my bed room, the only room that was relatively free of dust. While the storm raged on outside and I heard noises that sounded like trees falling over and dogs yelping (I just hope it wasn’t a tree falling on a dog), I was curled up with a book I’d been wanting to read for sometime and a packet of jam biscuits that reminded me of school. Could have been a very comfortable evening but for the AC not working.

A couple of hours later I started feeling hot. It had gotten very stuffy and I could sense the first pangs of hunger. Now since I was alone, there was already little chance of me having anything but a cheese sandwich for dinner. With no electricity, chances were even slimmer. So I did what every good girl does – called my aunt and said I was coming to her house. Then I called the Fellow and told him that I was apprehensive about driving to the aunt’s house because all the street lights were out and it was all very dark on the roads. “So what” he said. “Switch on the car lights and go”. After a little hesitation I agreed, all the while smile broadly because now if I totalled the car (or a cow) I could tell the Fellow he told me to drive when I didn’t want to in the first place. Teeheehee.

So I pack some stuff (the first being my laptop) and go on my way. Even before I’d left the residential complex I live in, I realised how bad the storm was. Trees were uprooted, garage doors off their hinges, canvas tents all over the place. Out on the roads it was pretty much the same except there was water logging in several places and I really enjoyed whooshing through all the water puddles making the water fly all over the place. Of course I was driving really carefully, least of all because it was quite seriously dark and morons driving on the other side of the road, towards me, were all Vitamin-A deficient and their super-high beam headlights quite literally blinded me. Anyways, with a lot of cursing, finger showing, honking, swerving to avoid cows and suicidal cyclists/motorcyclists/pedestrians I got to my aunts house.

Once there I decided to test my latest acquisition – a BSNL data card. Now this could mean one of two things. One, I really was excited about checking the speeds I got with this new card (since it’s so totally not expensive) and two, I was fast becoming an internet junkie who needed her Facebook/Wikipedia/Worth1000/Blogging fix. I’d like to think it’s option one. Unfortunately it’s the latter. Anywho, the speeds were excellent and the only glitch was very low battery life on the laptop. I managed to clatter out half this post before I had to reluctantly switch the system off.

Some 4 hours later (complete with family gossip, threatening phone calls to the toll-free number, improvised fans, sleeping under the stars and cool breeze, reading under a book light and quick messages to the Fellow), here I am, rejoicing the return of electricity by finishing this post and surfing the internet for random nothings. All the while staring lovingly at my BSNL thingy and smiling fondly.