A Very Blustery Day
On this very blustery day, I was remembering another blustery day back in the spring of 2009. That was before I had a blog, but well after I fell in love with writing down the funny things about this life here on earth. I hope you will laugh with me as I remember this day. Oh, and just so you know I don't take myself too seriously, I want you to know that I still use one of the pictures at the end of this blog as a visual representation of the word "windy" for my preschool weather board. Yup, today was a LOT like that day in 2009....
I blame my friend Missy. When she started talking about the baby ducks down at Silver Lake, I believe she knew that I would have to go investigate. Silver Lake is in my neighborhood (and hers), only about 8 blocks from my house. The weather has been chilly and rainy for a couple of days, so the promise by Weather Underground that today would be “much warmer” than yesterday, accompanied by the fact that I have the day off today, led to the inevitable conclusion that this would be the day I would walk down to Silver Lake and take pictures of the cute little baby duckies.
I have to admit that I turned around and came back home after getting just two houses down the hill the first time I started on my walk, at 7:30 am. It was still only 36 degrees, and just too cold to be comfortable in my little zip-up sweatshirt. But then the sun came out and the day beckoned. By 10:30, the temperature had risen to the mid 40’s and the sky was mostly cloudless. Hey, for Minnesota, that is practically sun bathing weather! Besides, I was bored with the tasks at hand around the house. It was time.
You need to know that my house is in a somewhat sheltered location, with hills to the north and west. It is never as windy here as it is in the rest of the city. Still, by the time I got to the bottom of the hill, I thought to myself, “Ya know (had to think that, I’m Minnesotan), that wind is blowing pretty hard at my back. It’s going to be cold walking back up that hill. I guess I better walk a long way and get warmed up before I come back.” OK, I never claimed to be a genius.
The closer I got to the wide open spaces around the lake, the windier it became. My hair turned into a weapon, whipping me in the eyes and blocking my vision. My eyes watered as bits of who-knows-what blew through the air and landed in them. I suppose I could have turned around and gone home, but remember, that whole “need to walk far enough to warm up” philosophy was still rattling around in my brain. Mind you, it wasn’t working. My fingers were frozen French fries at the end of my light weight sweatshirt’s sleeves – but they still clutched my camera in hopes of catching a glimpse of those elusive duck babies. Here’s the deal, though: Mama ducks do not let their babies go outside on days like today. They put in a DVD and sit those ducks in front of the TV until the weather is appropriate for young children.
By this time, I noticed the white caps on little Silver Lake. I probably hadn’t noticed them earlier because I couldn’t really see through the hair in front of my face. I found a sheltered spot in back of a big fir tree, where I could hear the wind whipping all around me but felt almost none of its force. I caught my breath and realized that I hadn’t really been breathing very deeply for the duration of the walk, as the wind was just too strong to allow that. It was a pleasant respite, but it was also a long way from home. I stepped out of my sheltered alcove and nearly tipped over from the blast of wind that greeted me. But I still didn’t change direction and head home quite yet. It was becoming a challenge I had to meet at that point. I’m something like a fourth or fifth generation Minnesotan (with lots of Norwegian to boot), so I may just have a stubborn streak in me somewhere.
Eventually, I did turn around and come back home. I think my whole walk took under an hour. It turns out that at 10:50 am (20 minutes after I shut down my computer and headed out on my walk) the National Weather Service issued a “WIND ADVISORY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM CDT THIS EVENING. SUSTAINED NORTHWEST WINDS FROM 25 TO 35 MPH...GUSTING IN EXCESS OF 45 MPH ARE LIKELY THROUGH THE DAY.” Really? Hard to believe!
Sure, they couldn’t issue that advisory BEFORE I went out on my walk! But, putting things in perspective, life is much better now. I have been home for almost two hours. My dear eldest son fixed me a frozen pizza for lunch, my poor fingers have thawed, and I think I picked all the debris out of my hair and teeth. Still, I will have a chat with Missy. She needs to think first before she throws around comments about baby ducks willy-nilly like that! There are consequences.
FACTOID: According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Answers@NOAA.gov), these are the top ten windiest cities in the US:
LOCATION Average Annual Wind Speed in Miles per Hour
MT. WASHINGTON, NH 35.1
ST. PAUL ISLAND, AK 16.9
COLD BAY, AK 16.8
BLUE HILL, MA 15.2
DODGE CITY, KS 13.9
AMARILLO, TX 13.5
BARTER ISLAND, AK 13.2
CHEYENNE, WY 12.9
KAHULUI, HI 12.8
ROCHESTER, MN 12.8
I blame my friend Missy. When she started talking about the baby ducks down at Silver Lake, I believe she knew that I would have to go investigate. Silver Lake is in my neighborhood (and hers), only about 8 blocks from my house. The weather has been chilly and rainy for a couple of days, so the promise by Weather Underground that today would be “much warmer” than yesterday, accompanied by the fact that I have the day off today, led to the inevitable conclusion that this would be the day I would walk down to Silver Lake and take pictures of the cute little baby duckies.
I have to admit that I turned around and came back home after getting just two houses down the hill the first time I started on my walk, at 7:30 am. It was still only 36 degrees, and just too cold to be comfortable in my little zip-up sweatshirt. But then the sun came out and the day beckoned. By 10:30, the temperature had risen to the mid 40’s and the sky was mostly cloudless. Hey, for Minnesota, that is practically sun bathing weather! Besides, I was bored with the tasks at hand around the house. It was time.
You need to know that my house is in a somewhat sheltered location, with hills to the north and west. It is never as windy here as it is in the rest of the city. Still, by the time I got to the bottom of the hill, I thought to myself, “Ya know (had to think that, I’m Minnesotan), that wind is blowing pretty hard at my back. It’s going to be cold walking back up that hill. I guess I better walk a long way and get warmed up before I come back.” OK, I never claimed to be a genius.
The closer I got to the wide open spaces around the lake, the windier it became. My hair turned into a weapon, whipping me in the eyes and blocking my vision. My eyes watered as bits of who-knows-what blew through the air and landed in them. I suppose I could have turned around and gone home, but remember, that whole “need to walk far enough to warm up” philosophy was still rattling around in my brain. Mind you, it wasn’t working. My fingers were frozen French fries at the end of my light weight sweatshirt’s sleeves – but they still clutched my camera in hopes of catching a glimpse of those elusive duck babies. Here’s the deal, though: Mama ducks do not let their babies go outside on days like today. They put in a DVD and sit those ducks in front of the TV until the weather is appropriate for young children.
By this time, I noticed the white caps on little Silver Lake. I probably hadn’t noticed them earlier because I couldn’t really see through the hair in front of my face. I found a sheltered spot in back of a big fir tree, where I could hear the wind whipping all around me but felt almost none of its force. I caught my breath and realized that I hadn’t really been breathing very deeply for the duration of the walk, as the wind was just too strong to allow that. It was a pleasant respite, but it was also a long way from home. I stepped out of my sheltered alcove and nearly tipped over from the blast of wind that greeted me. But I still didn’t change direction and head home quite yet. It was becoming a challenge I had to meet at that point. I’m something like a fourth or fifth generation Minnesotan (with lots of Norwegian to boot), so I may just have a stubborn streak in me somewhere.
Eventually, I did turn around and come back home. I think my whole walk took under an hour. It turns out that at 10:50 am (20 minutes after I shut down my computer and headed out on my walk) the National Weather Service issued a “WIND ADVISORY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM CDT THIS EVENING. SUSTAINED NORTHWEST WINDS FROM 25 TO 35 MPH...GUSTING IN EXCESS OF 45 MPH ARE LIKELY THROUGH THE DAY.” Really? Hard to believe!
Sure, they couldn’t issue that advisory BEFORE I went out on my walk! But, putting things in perspective, life is much better now. I have been home for almost two hours. My dear eldest son fixed me a frozen pizza for lunch, my poor fingers have thawed, and I think I picked all the debris out of my hair and teeth. Still, I will have a chat with Missy. She needs to think first before she throws around comments about baby ducks willy-nilly like that! There are consequences.
FACTOID: According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Answers@NOAA.gov), these are the top ten windiest cities in the US:
LOCATION Average Annual Wind Speed in Miles per Hour
MT. WASHINGTON, NH 35.1
ST. PAUL ISLAND, AK 16.9
COLD BAY, AK 16.8
BLUE HILL, MA 15.2
DODGE CITY, KS 13.9
AMARILLO, TX 13.5
BARTER ISLAND, AK 13.2
CHEYENNE, WY 12.9
KAHULUI, HI 12.8
ROCHESTER, MN 12.8
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