Wind

A river of wind is pouring through Wyoming, rushing to an "ocean" of low pressure it can fill. The wind river pours over and around my house rattling and shaking anything movable. The awning on my deck is rolled up tight, but the wind catches the edges, creating snapping and thumping. My bedroom opens off this deck and the commotion made for a restless night.

High winds like this sometimes sends the deck chairs on walkabout. These are not particularly lightweight chairs, but the wind can make a very effective sail of the back. Even sliding the chairs up to the table, where the front legs and part of the seat are under the table, does not prevent this walking. A chair has maneuvered from its place at the table, "walked" at least ten feet across the deck, made a right angle turn, and traveled down the 18 steps to the backyard. (Well, the stair part may have been more a crashing and falling than walking!) After a really windy day, the deck furniture is rearranged in most peculiar ways. (The photo is last summer, on a non-windy day.)

When the wind blows like this I can feel restless and whiny. Then I remind myself of when I lived in Joliet, Illinois, for a few months in my early twenties. There was very little wind there and the air never smelled fresh and clean. I returned to Wyoming with a new appreciation for the wind that sweeps our air clean and fresh. Too much wind has dreadful destructive power, and there is much suffering from the tornadoes that have destroyed so many homes and lives. Too little wind leaves the air stagnant and oppressive. Most of the time Wyoming's wind is just about right!