Meteorological madness!

I flipped my Dashboard on this morning out of habit. My weather widget for Cairo had a rain symbol.

Stupid useless thing, I thought.

I graded exams all day today. It still astonishes me that no matter how many times we talk about how heliocentrism isn't true, and I've defined positive and negative controls, the students still have crazy ideas.

Around 2:30 all hell broke loose. My doors and windows started slamming around and a hot wind spread sand all through the house. I ran through the apartment, shouting at J.F. to close everything down. Something bad was coming, and fast.


We darted out onto the porch to move the furniture against the walls to avoid an embarassing trip to the Indonesian Embassy later. Birds were being blown around the sky, garbage was swirling higher and higher, and the trees were thrashing like mobile animals.

The sky started darkening from the east, and the rain started falling. For a little while we were treated to the stunning sight of an enormous double rainbow arching over the city. Eventually the big fat drops took over, and we cracked the windows again to be able to smell the rain.

Now the air is crystal-clear and cool. It's absolutely lovely.