I fought the monsoon & the monsoon won
UPDATE: I now have a raging ear infection in my right ear. The ear that was facing the dirt storm... hum.... my good friend Candy pointed out that it probably was from the dirt that came out of my ear for 4 days after the infamous monsoon monstrosity. And with the dirt being DIRT it was probably had some roaming bacterial/viral/fungal ickiness that set up shop in my ear. Freakin gross. A special thank you to my doctor for unearthing the following facts that sett me straight. They are as follows:
Ears don't always hurt during the monsoon season sometimes they are just infected. It isn't a mysterious change in "pressure."
Sometimes when you are just feeling all hot and run down its not because its summer it's because you are running a fever.
Hugs and kisses to my favorite doctors office.
Then on Friday a huge storm knocked down a tree in our front yard this week that took 2 hours of hard labor for James and I to fix. Fighting with a tree is no fun. They bite.
The tally is Monsoon: 3 Betsy: 0
Sooooo yeah. Erin, Cathy and I went walking on Friday. As we usually do. We only took one dog this time Cathy's Pomeranian Bernie. We do a lap up the side of the neighborhood and circle back. Cathy says she wants to do the short loop out to the road and back. Erin agrees because she's eaten a burrito that day. We've only been walking for about 30 minutes at this point so I just go along with the plan. Mistake #1.
We get out to Tangerine Farms and start back toward the neighborhood...it starts looking a little dark so we pick up the pace. For those of you not residing in Arizona....we have monsoons here. Monsoons are afternoon storms that cool down the freakin hot heat. They can build really quickly and dump a ton of rain in a short period of time with side effects such as flash floods, high winds, dust storms and general chaos. Back to my traumatic story.... It starts sprinkling and we're not even to the turn and then the wind starts blowing. A full blow dust storm erupts over the empty lots in front of the neighborhood. Billowing clouds of dirt. So we are stuck at the corner of Tangerine Farms and Lon Adams watching the dust storm tear across the road. We discuss hiding in a tunnel, we wildly look around because..um maybe someones husband will be looking for them...alas no.
It is decided that I will run ahead (Mistake #2) and try to get home to get a car. I pull my sunglasses over my eyes and start running. Once I entered the dirt storm I couldn't see anything but the sidewalk at my feet. It's also hard to breath when you're breathing dirt. It's down my throat, its in my ears, it's in my eyes. A car slows down and looks like they might offer me a ride... but no they just look at me and drive on. Luckily I had a water bottle with me to rinse out my mouth or else I would have choked on dirt. Death by dirt is not pleasant. I take a shortcut into my neighborhood and make it to the house in good time.
I burst in my front door and find my husband on the couch watching motorcross. I scream something at him and run directly to the garage. I peel out of the driveway and go in search of my lost comrades. I find Cathy at the entrance to the neighborhood with a dusty Bernie. Somehow the dog ends up the cleanest out of the bunch... hum.... I pile them in the car and we track down Erin who is almost to her house. After I coughed up a dirt ball we decided that we looked too funny not to document. So we went to my house and took pictures.
Ears don't always hurt during the monsoon season sometimes they are just infected. It isn't a mysterious change in "pressure."
Sometimes when you are just feeling all hot and run down its not because its summer it's because you are running a fever.
Hugs and kisses to my favorite doctors office.
Then on Friday a huge storm knocked down a tree in our front yard this week that took 2 hours of hard labor for James and I to fix. Fighting with a tree is no fun. They bite.
The tally is Monsoon: 3 Betsy: 0
Sooooo yeah. Erin, Cathy and I went walking on Friday. As we usually do. We only took one dog this time Cathy's Pomeranian Bernie. We do a lap up the side of the neighborhood and circle back. Cathy says she wants to do the short loop out to the road and back. Erin agrees because she's eaten a burrito that day. We've only been walking for about 30 minutes at this point so I just go along with the plan. Mistake #1.
We get out to Tangerine Farms and start back toward the neighborhood...it starts looking a little dark so we pick up the pace. For those of you not residing in Arizona....we have monsoons here. Monsoons are afternoon storms that cool down the freakin hot heat. They can build really quickly and dump a ton of rain in a short period of time with side effects such as flash floods, high winds, dust storms and general chaos. Back to my traumatic story.... It starts sprinkling and we're not even to the turn and then the wind starts blowing. A full blow dust storm erupts over the empty lots in front of the neighborhood. Billowing clouds of dirt. So we are stuck at the corner of Tangerine Farms and Lon Adams watching the dust storm tear across the road. We discuss hiding in a tunnel, we wildly look around because..um maybe someones husband will be looking for them...alas no.
It is decided that I will run ahead (Mistake #2) and try to get home to get a car. I pull my sunglasses over my eyes and start running. Once I entered the dirt storm I couldn't see anything but the sidewalk at my feet. It's also hard to breath when you're breathing dirt. It's down my throat, its in my ears, it's in my eyes. A car slows down and looks like they might offer me a ride... but no they just look at me and drive on. Luckily I had a water bottle with me to rinse out my mouth or else I would have choked on dirt. Death by dirt is not pleasant. I take a shortcut into my neighborhood and make it to the house in good time.
I burst in my front door and find my husband on the couch watching motorcross. I scream something at him and run directly to the garage. I peel out of the driveway and go in search of my lost comrades. I find Cathy at the entrance to the neighborhood with a dusty Bernie. Somehow the dog ends up the cleanest out of the bunch... hum.... I pile them in the car and we track down Erin who is almost to her house. After I coughed up a dirt ball we decided that we looked too funny not to document. So we went to my house and took pictures.
At some point I ask James why he didn't come looking for me when it is obviously raining death from above and here's what he says... wait for it.... It doesn't look that bad from the house AND Well if I went looking for you I wouldn't know were to look. REALLY? Isn't that the point of looking? And when I point out that we'd been gone for over an hour and I repeatedly have told him if I am walking/running and I've been gone for over an hour that something is wrong he says....wait for it... I thought you went to Erin's house.... and then looks confused when I tell him that breaks the cardinal rule of running/walking. I give up and go take a shower and we'll count that as Mistake #'s 3-150.
So it is now Monday.... and I am still finding dirt in my ears. Not kidding. So in the future James now knows to come looking for us if it's raining or a sudden dust storm kicks up. And I think we'll take some tighter loops around the neighborhood for the remaining monsoon season. I don't want to have involuntary microderm abrasion to my ear and throat again. Its just not pleasant.
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