Weather you think you can, or you think you can't

So far wheather has mostly not been an issue. The temperatures are very much like Southern California, reaching high 60s or low 70s during the day; probably low 60s or 50s during the evening/night/morning. Our apartment has AC and heating, but we have not had to use either so far.

The reason I write "mostly" is because we have had a couple of sand storms. One occurred just before I arrived. It feels like you're in a fog except you're not cool and there's no humidity. Everything is beige. The other day I took a shower, put on moisterizer and hair gel and then stepped out into a sandstorm. The wet hair with gel, creamy face and hands worked very well. The sand stuck to me like plaster. I surely don't need St. Ives Apricot Scrub for my face; just rubbing the sand in leaves my skin soft and baby-smooth.

It's difficult to breath with sand all around. The people here told me my nose would do weird things and sure enough a couple days after I arrived I started sneezing; don't feel bad, just sneezing all of the time. Now I have laryngitis; don't feel bad, just can't talk. I'm sure it's all due to the weather. Everyone has scarf things that they put over their mouth and nose during a sandstorm. I'm going to try to buy one today at the PX. The USO is air conditioned, as are the barracks, gym library and DFac. Hopefully the summer and winter will be as manageable as the fall or spring or whatever this is.