Wednesday, May 4, 2011

It Fell Out of the Sky

This is a very short story about a personal mystery.
 Perhaps science or the fertile imagination of one our readers can propose a credible explanation...

This took place on Sunday afternoon (on the day that something important happened in the news & I don't know what it was) my wife was walking out of a coffee shop with a latte in her hand.

The weather was overcast, cold, and dreary.

Although it was hardly pleasant to be outdoors, this sort of weather was actually a welcome break from the high temperatures and the roaring wildfires we've seen ripping across the parched land all spring.

And my wife was thinking, "Oh, it's starting to rain again," and she thought she felt okay about it even as the wind was driving moisture into her face.

Then she looked down. At her cup of coffee. At her black shoes. She saw something that looked out of place.

Little pink dots.

She started running toward her parked car.

Our car and all the cars nearby were covered with it. Since our car is black it showed up very well, just as it did on her shoes. And on her jacket. And in her hair.

Little pink dots.


She looked down at her shoes. They looked like they had been
sprayed with this stuff...whatever it was.

Freak Occurrence?
So my wife called me and said, "Something creepy just happened." I quizzed her over the phone and I couldn't really understand.

I said, "Stay there. I'm coming." I was thinking she might have been caught up in a drifting cloud of paint. Some kind of industrial accident might have blown in with the wind.

I reached our car where it was parked in the lot. It looked absurd. From bumper to bumper it was confettied with the pink dots. (I wish I had taken a picture.) I looked around and I could see some other cars that were covered, but the phenomenon appeared to be localized.

It was too windy and cold to investigate further. Instead, I got inside and drove to a 24/7 car wash. Everything washed off and the pristine black paint surface returned.

I was left with a mystery.


The pink dots covered the lid of the cup containing my wife's latte.

What Was It? Someone Please Tell Me...
Strange things have been known to fall out of the sky. Parts of aircraft. Old space vehicles that have only partially burned up as they've fallen out of orbit and re-entered the atmosphere. Celestial objects like heavy, slaggish chunks of asteroids or meteors.

In this part of the world it has even at times rained mud.


Look at these dots closely. Does this look like mud?
That's right. High winds, of which we have plenty, stir the drought stricken fields (and we have plenty of drought, too) and they carry the top soil high into the air. Eventually the dirt mixes with a rain cloud.

A filthy rain then falls. I've seen this rare event a couple of times. Everything on the ground is covered with the splashes of mud.

But I've never seen pink mud. And I've never seen the muddy rain form itself into such tiny dots that look like they've been sprayed on rather than have fallen to the ground.

Even if one were to grant that dirt could be pink, the dots don't look like granules suspended in water. They're solid and have a semi-gloss sheen.

My wife used the word "creepy" and I have to concur. This stuff fell out of the sky, but one thing I'm sure of: it doesn't belong in the sky.

Does anyone have any idea what the pink dots could be? Do you want to share with me your best guess? - V.W.

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3 comments:

  1. An airplane carrying flame retardant stuff (that's the technical term) for the fires accidentally dropped it over the city. No really.

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  2. Thanks for that possible solution to the mystery! Like you, I am leaning toward a "man-made" source rather than a freak "natural" occurrence. The only problem I'm having is that it had been raining for two days, so was there any reason for a fire fighting aircraft to be aloft at the time?

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  3. Sandstorm from red dirt Oklahoma mixed with mist?

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