I will not miss: Dust

I do not want this blog to have a negative slant, but I think this one goes without saying. If I did not start with dust, it would just be the big, gritty, brownish, reddish elephant in the room.

Obviously as a professor of 20th Century US History, I am very familiar with the story of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. I have read several books about the causes, experiences, causalities, and effects. But you have no idea until you experience a haboob. If this word looks fake to you, don't worry, I had never heard of it before either. Haboob is the local term (although the origin is Arabic) for an intense dust storm. Apparently in October 2011, there was a severe haboob in Lubbock that all my students talked about like old-timey survivors. It was the worst one in

Haboob in Lubbock, October 17, 2011

many years - reminiscent of the
infamous Black Sunday in April 1935. In a typical dust storm, the western/northern sky will become dark reddish brown, the temperature drops about 20-30 degrees, the wind increases 30/40/50 mph, depending on the severity, and, slowly, a wall of dust moves toward the city. You can usually see it coming for a long time and most people try to get home or indoors before it hits. When the dust finally reaches the town, it feels like airborne sandpaper. It pricks your skin, burns your eyes, and fills your nose, ears, mouth, or any exposed orifice with pure grit. Haboobs are absolutely enormous and fascinating, until you get caught outside in one. You feel like you are stuck in your own personal tornado of angry dirt. Litter and debris blows down the streets. Tree and fences toppled over. And everything is left filthy. Moisture adds an extra layer of awful by creating mud rain, basically. Not. Fucking. Cool.

Any old Tuesday

The dust storms are horrible, for sure, but at least they are sporadic. I have really only experienced 1-2 bad ones in my two years here. The real issue with dust in Lubbock is far more constant. Dust infects every inch of my house, car, lawn, and being. Dust sneaks in your windows, doors, vents, fans. It is present in cracks, crevices, cups, couches, cats. Lubbock is coated in a thin layer of dust that no amount of cleaning and weather-proofing ever seems to solve.

I will not miss the dust in Lubbock.