Check Out That Haboob!

Haboob: huh-boob
Strong wind that is usually associated with large sandstorms and duststorms and may be accompanied by thunderstorms. It is most common during the summer, and may blow from any direction. A haboob may transport huge quantities of sand or dust, which move as a dense wall that can reach a height of about 3,000 feet.

I did not make up that word. It's real. Last night was the most MASSIVE dust storm I've ever seen in my life! Reports were it was 50 miles wide, 3/4 mile tall and was traveling at 55 miles per hour..... The picture above is one I found off the internet of somewhere up in Phoenix. I didn't actually see "the wall", but we certainly saw the storm.

We have a couple of empty trash barrels outside for composting and when the wind started to blow, they were falling over and threatening to fly away. Justin went outside to put a shovel in each of them to keep them grounded.
Just a couple of minutes later, it looked like this. Super dark and super dusty. I sent Justin outside again (this time with sunglasses and a dishrag over his face) to reinforce our Brigham tree. The poor thing was shaking side to side like crazy! I know you probably can't even really see Justin or the tree because the dust is that thick. But I was standing safely inside, I wasn't brave enough to venture into the "haboob".
This is what our front entry looked like. We had the front door open for about 6 seconds very early in the storm to take our decorative sign off the door. I set my phone down on the shelf and in those few seconds, the dust left a lovely film all over. (Can you see the semi-clean spot where my phone was sitting?)
Even with the door closed, teeny little leaks in our seal let in a thin layer of dust all over our entryway. I can't believe how much got in! I'm happy to report that the Brigham tree survived just fine and the storm passed after only about 45 minutes. We even got a spattering of rain for a few minutes once the dust died down.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm happy and unhappy to report that Carrie is back in diapers. She hasn't had much success since her little glory moment on Sunday, and I'm just done for a while. I need to figure out what step we missed to help her be the one who calls for the potty runs, not me. She was well trained in going to the bathroom when I told her to, but not well trained in going when her body told her she needed to. I need a little break. So far today, it's been wonderful. She's told me once that she needed to go, so I took her. Otherwise, I'm not feeling like my life is controlled by the clock, how long it's been since she last went, wondering if she'll have an accident before I take her again?...... So..... I'm not sure when I'll be done with my break, but for now, it's nice to relax a little.