What a truly strange, unsettling day.
The goddamn WIND! Never in all my born days have I experienced such a sustained blow from a clear blue sky. All day long and even now, well into the night, the wind has been blowing from the WNW at a steady 30 mph and gusting to over 50 mph. At least that’s what they say. It blew so strong, it knocked my wife down, and that’s hard to do. I’d say a sustained velocity of closer to 45 or 50 mph with gusts to hurricane force would be more like it. Officially, some locations in the state did have winds over 60 mph. And did I mention that the sky was mostly clear all afternoon?
The large residential dumpster up by the road blew over and ended up 50 yards down the hill. My outdoor chair cushions ended up out on the mesa. A particularly strong gust knocked over my heavy aluminum extension ladder — I could hardly believe that, but i was grateful that it didn’t hit the kitchen window on its way down. The garbage can blew over. Three bird feeders are down. I’ve only gone outside twice today, and each time the blowing sand felt like tiny needles against my face.
But the worst thing was the psychological effect. The stress. There’s nothing worse than constantly roaring wind to whittle away your equanimity. Quite of test of what you’re made of, dancing with non-related crises in the midst of that environment. I truly felt I would go mad.
Yes, this is what it does here in the spring, but it hasn’t blown like this since we moved to New Mexico in ’99. At least we have this fine rented adobe to live in. There’s nothing that would ever make it shake except an earthquake. Back in Maryland, wind like we’ve had today would have scared me silly. If it wasn’t another tree blowing down, it was pieces of the estate. On the old moldy farmhouse we used to own, even a lots weaker storm would pull pieces of the siding off, especially on the wall below the kitchen windows, and way up high, on the north side. I used to go outside in a storm — sometimes on a ladder, mind you — and nail it down.
Still blowing hard, temperature a little above freezing.
Man, oh man.
No related posts.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Hold On!
she were blowing a gale were she?
No, a gale would pass in a few hours or a day. This is called “spring.”
We got it here too: 500 miles to the west of you, and everything from the patio, — lawn chairs, a couple of flower pots, even the large, wheeled garbage and recycle containers — wound up down in the arroyo behind the house. No rain, though, and it’s a lot warmer.
“In Taos-No One Can Hear You Scream”- Open the Pod-Bay Doors John.