Friday Morning (AKA Sunday Morning)

Slept in today as I was up until 1:00 am last night working with the Internet. I found out why I haven't heard from Carolyn - the desktop computer is down! What a bummer. Going to try out MagicJack later today to call Carolyn. If it works well I might investigate further and report on it's capabilities. So, Carolyn, if by chance you read this blog before I call you, be sure to be near the phone about noon or so Houston time.
It's a beautiful day again here in the Kingdom. Breakfast about 10:00 am of omelet and a bowl of cereal. The dining hall is just across the street and is heavily subsidized. For example, my breakfast today was 12. 00 Ryals (or about $3.00 US dollars). It is steam table fashion (cafeteria style) with an array of ethnic foods. There are a lot of Saudis that eat there as well, so, like this morning, there were a number of Saudi families in there eating. One thing I have noticed since I was last here, almost twenty years ago, is that the habayah (sp?) is really more previlant now, and many more wear the full head vail with only the eyes showing. The old military term for these women is BMO (Black Moving Objects). You might hear me use that term on occasion. At any rate, the women on the team all wear the BMO outfit, minus the head gear (although they drap it around their shoulders just in case). There are a lot of the Saudi men in traditional garb, as well. One of the things that you will also notice if you get out into the Aramco compound are the labor pool of Phillipino and Bangledesh men. They are omnipresent on every corner, sweeping, raking, watering, etc. It is no wonder the place is so clean and neat. Every plant that they can reach is trimmed and shaped! The irrigation system is extradinary - much of it using drip irrigation aith a line to almost every plant. They use a lot of circular dams to contain the water around each large plant or group of smaller annuals. They do use sprinkler systems for large expanses of turf like the golf course. All of this irrigation water come from processed waste water gathered from the compound, wso it is not potable. Just seeing all of the partially exposed black plastic water lines says something about the massive effort to make this place look like home to the expats. The photo is of one of the greens on the golf course with some of the newer housing in the background.