holy crap people, i just received the 2012 farmer's almanac (which is a pretty tripped out thing, i'll leave spray on fabrics and glass roads for another post)
but something caught my eye:

they have a VERY LARGE article on ASH from volcanoes.
it's called "ash, and you shall receive"
the 1st sentence is..

"for 3 days, an impenatrable dark, ash fog hung over the region, cutting off radio communication and obliterating even the light of a lantern held at arm's length...." uh.........