dust storm

At first, I thought it was mid-afternoon fog, but then Janice-Bob said it was dust blowing in from west Texas. Indeed, there was enough to drive my contact lenses crazy, and the sun was somewhat obscured, leading to a surreal effect (shown in the photo).

Also possibly due to the high winds (and today's Red Flag Warning), the Thai restaurant [Thai Tanee] -- where we'd just sat down to peruse the menu -- lost power due to a blown transformer. We started to leave, but the owner said they cook with gas, so we ordered and had a splendid meal, uneventful if not for the lack of background music and the weird dust effect going on outside.

As written on the Dallas Managed News site: "Dust was also a hazard, and the National Weather Service issued a blowing dust advisory, the first one Weather Service official could remember. "We don't usually see west winds this strong," said Weather Service spokeswoman Jessica Schultz. She said the wind's direction was responsible for the dust, which caused visibility to drop to as low as a quarter-mile in some areas. She said strong southerly winds blew through the area back in October, but it has been about 20 years since westerly winds were as strong as they were Saturday."

When I got home, there was a message from HayJax asking if my power was out, so I suspect she was In The Dark, too (yet, two miles from the restaurant). I called her cellphone and lied - saying that my power was out so I had to watch TV by candlelight. We'll see if she bought that fish story.