SAND!!!

OK....so I know I am in Kuwait (awaiting a hop up North) but WOW, there is a lot of sand.  It is everywhere, gets into everything and there is no escape!!  When we arrived early one morning it was already 100 degrees with a "nice" hot wind.  This particular wind was carrying sand into my ears, eyes and everywhere else.  I thought that perhaps this was just a temporary thing and that it wouldn't always be like this.  I WAS WRONG!!!  It seems that we get the wind carrying sand more often that the wind is still.  Right now as I type this I feel the sand between my toes.  I am sitting at my cot, having just returned from a run and working out at the gym and my shoes and socks are filled with a fine coating of sand.  I don't remember walking through any specific pile of it but somehow it just gets everywhere.  I have taken some pictures that barely show what I mean.  The one picture of the sun setting is when the wind is blowing and literally has darkened the sky with a tan haze and dulled the sun.  It was crazy because back home it would just be clouds.  I don't think there will be any escaping it here or up North so I will find the good in the sand.  The sand keeps a lot of bugs away because NOTHING grows here.  I have not seen one cloud, tree, bush, weed.....NOTHING!!!!  Who would want to live here????  How could anything live here???  So I guess that is good......another thing that is good is that it cleans your boots.  They were darker tan from the dirt of New Jersey but now they are a nice Deseret Tan again.  OK, what else...Oh, it helps dry my feet.  When I walk from the shower trailer and my flip flops and feet are still a little wet the sand dries them within about 30 steps.  That's good right???  The sand also helps cover the trash well and pretty much everything else.  When we arrived here one of our duffel bags didn't make it.  When one of our guys went back to find them it turns out that an Air Force unit grabbed them on accident and when they realized they were ours they just left them outside.  Turns out after a couple days sand likes to build up anywhere it can and sure enough our bags were BURIED!!  All of our bags had sand in them.  Not the big coarse stuff but the fine powder stuff that works it way into the fibers of nylon and clothing.  Luckily I had the foresite to put my clothes, socks, etc. in zip-lock bags.  They came out clean!!!  Thank goodness!!!!