the wind

I want to write a bit about the wind today. Yeah, it is blowing. Seems it always does, and sometimes I want to get annoyed with it. but I am trying not to.

I am trying to remember back to the place in Colorado, on the western slope, where we used to joke that anything not nailed down would "fly to Utah" on the winds (we were only 13.5 miles from the CO-UT border). But I don't really remember it blowing ALL the time.

And in the canyon, well it was a canyon and what happened up on the wheatlands, weather-wise, affected us depending on the direction of the wind and the direction of the canyon -- or side-canyon -- in which you lived.

And other places, I think the wind came and went... and maybe it doesn't ALWAYS blow here, either, but it sure seems like it. That's one reason I want to get the old weather station up and working (if the software can be found ... and made to work on the current generation of computers.). And if it does blow "all the time" maybe just maybe this is the place for a windmill and some energy generation or the like, if we can figure it out without laying out a small fortune.

I have noticed that the wind changes. Around Samhain it HOWLED, literally, around the eaves. Now it doesn't howl, it just buffets, and blows snow around if there is any new stuff. And sounds the wind chimes. I had K put one up on the garage eave, but I think I am going to have him take it down again as it has stopped having a pleasant sound, to me, and just sounds like clanging in the wind. And its clapper, or rather the flattened, rusty tin can I have used to move the clapper after the original one disappeared (in an down east hurricane) is beating the crap out of the siding and trim on the garage.

I used to like wind chimes, as they would alert me to the gentle breezes that blew around the places I lived, where there were no trees to rustle to tell me of the visiting wind.

There are no trees here, either, but the wind announces itself, with huffs and puffs and "I'll blow your house down" that makes me thankful for the mostly-secured hurricane strapping under the place.

Flapping the frozen clothes on the line late last year, it trashed the clothes tree. Our Yule tree, which I had hoped to use for windbreak somewhere and a Yule log next year, had blown away beyond sight before I got back into the house from dragging it out. I am surprised that the "Hex signs for sale" signs on the mailbox post remain afixed there. The wind seems to be here, always, and seldom a gentle breeze.

It is quite unexpected, and is taking some getting used to.

Come spring and summer, if it continues, I am sure I will be more thankful for it as it is a BIG deterrent to black flies and mosquitoes. But now I am trying to come to terms with it.

Last night, trying to fall asleep, I was listening to it flap the vent on the stove hood (that is pretty much constant too) and on the plumbing system (a bit quieter), listening to the clang of the wind chime and its muffled beating against the garage. And I noticed two moment of stillness.

And then the wind returned.