Day 19
Saying, “It’s been windy.” would be an understatement. Yelling out, “IT’S BEEN WINDY!!!!” … would be closer to the truth.
And one thing I know for certain … I hate wind.
I was out last night with the dog in the backyard – watching her search for the “right spot”. Dori has a tilted head and for whatever reason (brain damage? balance issues?) she goes in a circle about 67 times before getting down to business. It had been windy all day – for two days and I could hear the house moving inches off the foundation (or so it seemed) with every blast that hit the house. It was so gusty that I felt I needed to be outside with her just in case the wind picked her up and carried her over the fence and away – I’d know in which direction to start looking for her.
Seriously.
While out there, in the backyard, at 10pm it was still 53 degrees. Our weather has been weird lately. The winds that blew around me brought with them something … of one thing I could be certain … they were the winds of change.
Living for 30 some years in Colorado I’ve learned one thing … be ready for anything. Any weather … as it can be 60 one day and 4 feet of snow the next. Or it could be cold one day and warm and balmy the next. The winds bring those changes.
But last night’s winds were different … they weren’t just gusty and a lot of air blowing around … these had a life to them – a sinister quality that howled and groaned and slammed into the house wailing as they went past the windows. I was getting quite uneasy while standing out there watching the dog – as she circled and circled and circled.
My yard isn’t dark … I’ve got white lights on the fence, I’ve got lights on the house. Dark, yes … pitch black, no. But it wasn’t the darkness that made me uneasy – it was the wind. Mournful and menacing … it rushed through the tree tops … the howling of evil spirits raced past me while I stood out there (while that damn dog still circled!). It was downright CREEPY.
I was more than glad to get back into the house! And as soon as we did so – I turned on some music to drown out the noise happening outside. The winds swirled around the house and made me edgy … seemingly prompting me to jump off a high building. Good thing my house is a 2-story … worse thing I’d do is break a leg if I tried to jump out a window! (Not that I’d actually try to jump out a window – I’m afraid of heights and not a fan of injury or pain!)
I would certainly have perished if I had been born a prairie woman. I’m not violent, suicidal or unstable … yet I’m pretty sure I would have killed off any Indians or prairie lions or wolves that came my way and then run, hair blowing wildly in the winds and thrown myself off a cliff just like the buffalo herds pictured in my 5th grade history book. The winds would have driven me mad. Mad, MAD I tell you! (Muuhaaahaaahaaa!)
Only joking. About the evil laugh part … the prairie scenario I’m pretty sure would have happened.
The highest wind gusts in Colorado, on record, were recorded atop Long’s Peak (14,259′) in 1981 at 201 mph! Wow. Put on a babushka! (Look that one up!) Makes the winds clocked in the city of Boulder in 1971 (147 mph) and in Denver last December 2011 (98 mph) seem rather tame. The gusts of last evening were a mere 88 mph. In contrast – they now seem rather mild! Evil but mild!
Mount Washington’s weather station (in New Hampshire) clocked gusts of 231 mph and held that record for six decades until Cyclone Olivia’s arrival in 1996 (253 mph) in Australia. Tornadic activity and hurricane force winds are in a different category (as they are not surface winds) when used as data.
In any case … the winds of change transformed us from a balmy spring-like day and plunged us back into the depths of winter. I awoke to a Currier and Ives wonderland scene with 9″ of new snow on my back deck. I’m hoping the next winds bring palm trees!