California Dirt

Let me tell you about our windows. Because we live next to LAX, in the part of town that gets hit with the most airplane noise, our apartment has been decked out with quadruple paned windows. These things are heavy duty - and for the first two years we've had them neither my husband, our neighbors, nor our apartment manager could figure out how to get the windows out to clean them.

So they were pretty dirty - as you can imagine. About a month ago, I was seized with the compulsion to clean every inch of our apartment in preparation for our baby. And this included our Fort Knox windows. With a little investigation, I was able to find someone who showed us how to get each pane out, but the work was heavy enough that it required man strength.

For that reason, I called on my Dad to come help Dwayne clean the windows. The guys worked diligently, spending all morning pulling each pane out of each window in each room of our apartment. Finally, the work was done. We got everything sparkling and I was a happy pregnant lady.

Now, fast forward four weeks - the Fall season has begun. I love Fall. In fact, I crave it every year, but here in California it hardly changes. True -- the air gets cooler, people stop going to the beaches, and perhaps one tree every mile or so turns red, but the days are still persistently sunny and warm. It's a bit disconcerting.

You can understand then, that I was so excited when last weekend we had a decent-sized thunderstorm. Perhaps the first I've really seen in California with lightening included! I was so excited. I opened all the windows, so I could hear it falling. I opened the door, stuck my head out, and was instantly wet. Rain this heavy rarely ever falls in LA, and especially near the ocean where we live. The rain was so heavy that it fell through our bedroom window, ran down the wall, and even got our comforter wet! I was so excited! Finally, I was getting a little taste of Fall, or some season other than the perpetually perky sunshine of LA.

The next morning, I walked out into the living room, opened the curtains, and breathed deep of the crisp morning air. But then I saw it - caking the crevaces, the corners, and the panes of my nicely cleaned windows. California dirt.

Does this happen in other parts of the country? I don't remember. Do you battle layers of mud/dirt being caked on your windows, cars, or pavement when it rains? Or does it rain so frequently that it keeps things clean? The opposite is true here. Dirt builds up for a year so that when it finally does rain it makes everything more dirty than it was before!

Oh well, at least my windows were clean for a few weeks.