Oh, The Wind.... Wind... Wind.... WIND!

Sitting here, safely enclosed within my second floor apartment, I can easily understand how many pioneer women were pushed beyond their sanity limit by the constant blowing of the wind.  I grew up, pretty much, in the east; I was three when we moved from Virginia to Tennessee, and was five when we left Kingsville, Texas for Gainesville, Florida.  I grew up with stories of tornadoes and the Dust Bowl in Kansas and Oklahoma, and with stories about hurricanes and high water on Chincoteague.  Spending my school years in Florida, I was highly conversant with hurricanes and hurricane winds.  We always lived in the suburbs, and had neighbors near by.
   The winds that I have encountered in Boulder, Colorado are of a different variety than the sudden rain squalls on the island, and from hurricane winds.   I find I get very tired after the wind has been blowing here for 8 hours or more. It doesn't matter if I'm in an apartment, a small house, or a huge mansion - the wind is tiring.  Here, in the apartment I call home, I live on a corner of the building.  We have a full size sliding glass door onto the balcony, a single large window in my bedroom looking west, another large window facing west in Bea's room, and she also has two smaller south-face windows, one in her walk-in closet.  The only way to get fresh air inside is to open either of the two bedroom windows, the slider onto the balcony, or the entrance door.- Not that we want to open things up when it's windy.
   The exhaust flap for the dryer is above my bedroom window, as is the exhaust vent for the stove.  When the wind blows, both of those flaps move with the air.  I hear it in my bedroom, in the hall beside the dryer, and in the kitchen near the range.  With big gusts, the windows shake and shudder in their frames.  Now, I know that this building was built to withstand straight-line winds of up to 120 miles per hour - but it's not something that's easy to get used to.
  So, when I'm getting myself worked up about the wind, and how edgy it makes me feel, I think of pioneer women.  Women who were used to hard work and privation, who were used to "making do" with what was available, but who had grown up with a large family, usually where another house was within walking distance...  And here they are, inside a soddy, or a small cabin, probably not well sealed, listening to the wind blow and blow and blow, through the cracks, around the corners... blowing sand, snow, whatever inside, insinuating itself through every vestigial opening.  No one to speak with, except a husband, who was busy with his own worries... And, frequently, no other women around except in a day's travel time.  It is no wonder that so many women were placed into institutions, or killed themselves, or left to find a place without wind, and disappeared into the prairies and mountains.
   I am very lucky that I can retreat into books, or music, or the television.  I usually read during windy days... today I'm working on my family genealogy, but I find myself getting irritated when the PC slows down, or the *@#^$%* Comcast connection interrupts service.  So, I think I'll go back to a book - and read - because of the wind.....

Warmth, For Two Days

Well, the Chinook winds did their wizardry Monday and yesterday - melted a lot of the snow that was still on the ground (I can actually see grass and dirt in some places), but the sudden warming, from -5 degrees to 58 degrees, caused havoc with the pavement.  Craters opened up on US 36, the main road between Boulder and Denver, and more than 30 vehicles suffered flat tires because of the potholes on Monday night alone.  One of the holes in a tire sidewall was as large as a softball.  Then it froze overnight, and by 2 a.m. the city of Boulder was on "Accident Alert" status because of the ice that formed from the melted snow.  Accident Alert status means that if you have an accident, but no one is hurt enough for medical attention, the drivers just swap information and call their insurance company.  If there is an injury, then the police get called in.  I know that the roads and portions of the sidewalk were extremely slippery with ice this morning, as I almost pitch-poled several times on the way to, and back from, the grocery store.
  The temperature did reach 58 degrees on Monday, and I was in jeans and a T-shirt at home yesterday; but today is another matter.  Hopefully, we'll reach 25 degrees; then 50 Thursday, 30 Friday, and in the 40s for the weekend.  Which means pretty decent weather for the Denver Broncos football game Sunday afternoon.  It's snowing and 15 degrees outside at the moment...
  I did try something stupid last night - the small grey marmalade kitten that lives in B-115 was outside, on the patio, and crying his heart out at 11 p.m. last night.  I tried to bring him in, out of the cold.  Nedi was neutral about it; Lovey was outraged.  I had to stick the poor little guy back outside - but I made sure there a was box with an old blanket in it at the inner corner of the patio.  I think he slept here overnight.  I have to go leave a note on the owners' door, asking about their care for the little man.  I'll find him a good home, if they won't care for him!

Chinook Winds

I didn't feel warm yesterday until I'd been in bed, with my nightcap on, for 3 hours, last night.  I don't remember feeling this cold when we had the deep freeze for several weeks, years ago, when the daily highs were less than 10 degrees for 10 days...  Maybe getting older and the lower radiator heat settings are combining to make me uncomfortable.  However, we're expecting the wonderful Chinook winds to kick in late this morning - because they're blowing in from the west, with a constant wind speed between 35 and 50 mph (with gusts between 70 and 90 mph), we're supposed to have a high temperature of 51 degrees. The high is supposed to be the same tomorrow, and the wind and heat should do a handy job of evaporating most of the snow on the ground.  Of course, the weather folks also say that we'll get more snow Tuesday night, and have a high of 28 on Wednesday - but that the high temps will bump back up into the 40s and 50s afterwards.  We'll see.
  The Colts ran over the Bengals yesterday; so on Sunday, it'll be the Broncos playing the Colts.  Poor refereeing cost the Detroit Lions the game against the Dallas Cowboys...I'm glad I'm not a die-hard Lions fan; I'd have died from apoplexy!  And, even so, I like the Lions more than the Cowboys.
  My friend Beatrice gave me stacking baskets filled with towels and socks for Christmas.  Lovey and Nedi have decided that the two baskets filled with bath towels are absolutely perfect for kitty beds...

Nedi

Lovey