It’s weather drama time in northern New Mexico.
Today we had 50 mph gusts as an advancing cold front mixed it up with a furious south wind. I saw a squall line that must have stretched for over a hundred miles before the thunderstorms went by. The wind blew everything all to hell: sent the lawn chair cushions into the sagebrush, then toppled over the chairs, took the chimney cap off, blew over some rakes and shovels, tore all the dead branches out of the elm trees, tipped over at least three big plastic dumpsters that I saw — you get the idea. And it’s still blowing.
It’s not that cold — only in the 50s — but the front hasn’t come through yet, and a hard freeze is forecast for early next week! In the meantime, it’s autumnal as hell here, with roaring wind and blowing leaves. It even rained, so it’s all wet and damp outside. 7,000 feet up in the high desert, and the season shows up here all the same. I don’t know how She does it.
Fall seems to come on fast here, all of a sudden. It’s the same with spring. Spring and fall were always my favorite seasons back East, and each bloomed slowly. Or did they only seem to? The seasons’ lengths are equal everywhere, but here the highs and lows are more extreme. Maybe that’s why it seems the gentler seasons are so short. That, and the inherited perspective I bring to the situation, obviously.
Then again, by the end of last “fall,” the ground had been frozen solid for weeks, our sloping driveway was a frozen river of ice, and it was getting down to 10 below zero at night. That was what killed us last year, by the way, because the ground froze so early and the ample snows hardly melted any in-between. And when it did melt… According to people who’ve been here at least 30 or 40 years, last winter was like the old days, too. Nothing out of the ordinary. But geez, why am I talking about winter?! I’m not sure, maybe because I haven’t gotten warm yet from the last one, and now with the wind blowing so hard outside, I know it’s coming.
In this part of the world, fall drives in with winter in the back seat!
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