Dust storm

The wind was whipping up when I went to Whole Foods Market about noon. The store was an aesthetic adventure. Huge bins of perfect organic produce shining under spotlights while the audience of physically fit foodie shoppers pushed carts in low light. Fantastic stacks of exotic cheese, a gleaming array at the olive bar, jewel colored shrimp on mounds of ice competed for my attention. My list was short. I held firm to the knowledge that I wouldn't actually do the type of cooking these foods demanded once I got them back to the condo. I was just window-shopping, like the old days of fancy window displays in downtown Lincoln.

It's been many years since I read Don DeLillo's apocalyptic White Noise, but I remember that the grocery store grew more beautiful as the world outside it decayed.



Took this photo looking down the street toward the llama farm about four p.m. The world seemed faded, but glowing, and the air tasted like wagon ruts. Winds were gusting to sixty mph, and visibility was less than half a mile. Dust was blowing in from the west, bringing "most of Lubbock" to Plano, as one friend commented.

I'd been on a little errand to the post office and a little store. The wind had blown the front door of the store out of its frame so it was hanging at ninety-five degrees instead of ninety. The little shopkeeper was up on a tall aluminum ladder with a screwdriver trying to fix it, head ducked to keep flying grit out of his eyes. When a customer went into the shop, he climbed down to ring up the sale. When the customer went out, the ladder blew over, just missing the lady's head.

It's White Noise. I'm going home and hunker down. I wish I could read Don DeLillo's description of the particulate-enhanced sunset right now!

"Ever since the airborne toxic event, the sunsets had become almost unbearably beautiful...."

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN FORT WORTH HAS ISSUED A BLOWING DUST ADVISORY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM CST THIS AFTERNOON. A HIGH WIND WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM CST THIS EVENING.
A STRONG LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM MOVING ACROSS OKLAHOMA TODAY WILL CREATE WEST WINDS OF 30 TO 40 MPH THIS AFTERNOON... WITH GUSTS OF 60 MPH POSSIBLE. STRONG WINDS WILL ALSO RESULT IN BLOWING DUST WITH VISIBILITIES AS LOW AS 1/4 TO 1/2 OF A MILE.

© 2007 Nancy L. Ruder