So it’s May 1st tomorrow. This is our third spring in the Middle East. By May 1st it is always SMOKING HOT SEE YOU IN OCTOBER hibernation weather. But this year? It’s lovely. And crazy. We had rain today. All day. We had rain and thunder and lighting storms last week. We’ve had cloudy and overcast days. Calvin went to the waterpark over the weekend and I was wondering if it was warm enough. Our friends in Oman are getting so much rain that school has been cancelled, roads are flooding and cars are being washed away.
It’s not nearly as bad here (and I love the magical wetness that falls from the sky), but traffic has been horrendous today. Some of the traffic lights are down, major intersections are backed up for blocks and even more car accidents than usual.
Yesterday. Pre-rain. This is the heat index that changes from green to yellow to red to black based on the temperature. With each level (above green) there are restrictions for outdoor Physical Training, etc. Black flag conditions basically mean don’t go outside except to get from one air conditioned building to another. It stayed black flag conditions for months last year. It’s amazing that it’s May and still green.
This crazy looking bunny is Camille’s Build-A-Bear creation. Josh took Camille and Caleb on a special outing over the weekend. She calls it “Panda Bunny” (no clue how she came up with that name) and she picked out glittery shorts and a tank top for it, but like all of her other dolls, it mostly hangs out naked.
A nearby neighborhood with all sorts of restaurants and street art that rotates seasonally. Since it’s still so beautiful out, we can walk to lunch and eat outside. What makes this painting special is that there are actually random couches out on the street here and you’ll see taxi drivers lounging like this right on the curb, waiting for a fare. I have been dying to take a photo of them, but haven’t figured out how to do it discreetly yet.
I didn’t take any photos of the rain today. We’re supposed to have storms the next 2 days so there will be plenty of enormous puddles to drive through tomorrow. I had more photos of unimportant things to post, but my internet connection is being delivered on the backs of beetles at the moment. One more way that the island grinds to a halt every time it rains.
ETA: I’ve changed the comments format to “embed.” I don’t know if that will be better or worse. It seems like some people have problems no matter which format is used. I have it set with as few restrictions as possible. Hope that improves things for some of you and doesn’t mess it up for those of you who didn’t have problems before.
