I have a few things I want to write about, like a second dinner we were invited to to celebrate a student from Steve's school graduating, about winning free tickets to see Disney on Ice, and a swarm of termites, but first I'm going to write about the dust storm we had this week.
Now, this was nothing compared to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, or apparently what happened in Saudi Arabia where they had a wall of dust moving along. There was no wall of dust, but rather more like a snowstorm, but with dust instead of snow. There were times when we were out and about that we couldn't see very far down the road and there were ribbons of dust blowing on the road. The dust would hit the windows of the car and sound kinda like rain. It was awful to go outside, so we went out as little as possible. But unfortunately, I had a lot of errands to run this past week. So we were out in it a few times.
Our villa, though is big and nice, isn't weather treated very well. And when I say very well, I really mean not at all. There was absolutely no weather stripping around the doors and the windows had holes were the two panes met (they slide left to right to open rather than pushing it up). So we bought some weather stripping and put it in the doors as best we could. Steve also cut small bits and put it in the holes in the windows to try to minimize the amount of hot air coming in. But we can only do so much to compensate for poor construction.
The wind blows from the west and the back of our villa faces the west. I could hardly believe the amount of dust that came in the house. The storm started last Friday (June 7) and we left for church before I could put a towel in front of the back door (I can see day light from a gap at the bottom, so of course mountains of dust come in there). I didn't think to do anything about it until it was too late. The kitchen was covered in dust. The microwave and counters were visibly dusty.
Steve decided to sweep the Saturday after the storm started (June 8). He said that he swept up about a cup of dust from the floor in two rooms. After that, he gave up. I didn't bother dusting for a few days, and then I couldn't stand it any longer and Big E helped me dust. At some places in the house, I brushed the dust into my other hand. I also didn't bother to clean the kids' bathroom. It's on the west side of the house and even with just a little dust in the air, the bathroom gets gross. And this time it was really gross. I didn't want to waste my efforts and have to clean it many times during the week, so we just didn't use the bathroom.
The dusty wind finally calmed down a bit, and I finally cleaned the bathroom this past Thursday and this is what it was like before I cleaned it:
Now, this was nothing compared to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, or apparently what happened in Saudi Arabia where they had a wall of dust moving along. There was no wall of dust, but rather more like a snowstorm, but with dust instead of snow. There were times when we were out and about that we couldn't see very far down the road and there were ribbons of dust blowing on the road. The dust would hit the windows of the car and sound kinda like rain. It was awful to go outside, so we went out as little as possible. But unfortunately, I had a lot of errands to run this past week. So we were out in it a few times.
Our villa, though is big and nice, isn't weather treated very well. And when I say very well, I really mean not at all. There was absolutely no weather stripping around the doors and the windows had holes were the two panes met (they slide left to right to open rather than pushing it up). So we bought some weather stripping and put it in the doors as best we could. Steve also cut small bits and put it in the holes in the windows to try to minimize the amount of hot air coming in. But we can only do so much to compensate for poor construction.
The wind blows from the west and the back of our villa faces the west. I could hardly believe the amount of dust that came in the house. The storm started last Friday (June 7) and we left for church before I could put a towel in front of the back door (I can see day light from a gap at the bottom, so of course mountains of dust come in there). I didn't think to do anything about it until it was too late. The kitchen was covered in dust. The microwave and counters were visibly dusty.
Steve decided to sweep the Saturday after the storm started (June 8). He said that he swept up about a cup of dust from the floor in two rooms. After that, he gave up. I didn't bother dusting for a few days, and then I couldn't stand it any longer and Big E helped me dust. At some places in the house, I brushed the dust into my other hand. I also didn't bother to clean the kids' bathroom. It's on the west side of the house and even with just a little dust in the air, the bathroom gets gross. And this time it was really gross. I didn't want to waste my efforts and have to clean it many times during the week, so we just didn't use the bathroom.
The dusty wind finally calmed down a bit, and I finally cleaned the bathroom this past Thursday and this is what it was like before I cleaned it:
It's still been windy outside, but it's not as dusty. Last Thursday was the first non-dusty evening all week.
2 comments:
wow! do you have more pictures of the dust in the house?
lesli
Do you have a handvac? That would really pay for itself in a few uses. . . Maybe you could train E in how to use the hand vac? He might enjoy sucking up sand.. ..
Post a Comment