Blow Me Down

Lately, we've had sunshine, rain and even a few snowflakes on our faces, but one recent evening, it was so windy that I was nearly blown down a couple of times and my hat wanted to take flight by the big gusts.  The wind must be ushering in some weather pattern or another.  Perhaps the wind is simply bringing November with it, moving us from the vibrant beauty and warm afternoons of October into the harsh realities of winter.  At any rate, I sit in my reading chair, curled up and covered with my quilt, listening to the gusts swirling around, causing the wind chimes to sing outside of our kitchen windows.  I'm grateful to be tucked inside where it's warm and dry, and I pray for those who are struggling to find shelter on this windy night that they will be blessed with a safe, comfortable place to rest their heads.  As winter approaches, we all need shelter from the storm.

Screaming, Screeching Wind

The winter wind blew that evening.  It blew harder than I've heard the wind blow in quite some time.  It had a screaming, screeching, whistling, howling quality to it.  The wind chimes outside of our kitchen window clanged like crazy.  The vent above our stove-top fan clanked and clanked.  The gusts swirled around the u-shaped entry between our condo and our neighbor's.  And Larry was in Madison.  Oh, how I wanted him home so we can snuggle in front of the TV and watch something silly and numbing, just enough distraction to reduce the sound of that loud, loud wind.  I recall as a child growing up in the country that we would hear such loud winds, but except for the occasional bad summer storm now, I don't recall hearing such fiercely pitched, windy gyrations in recent years.  The wind was removing our 40-degree weather and ushering in sub-zero temps.  I must say that I was much happier with the 40-degree weather variety, but we'll take what we get and blow around with the wind, hoping to walk straight without flying away.