Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Wind

All I can think about today is wind. Ridiculous, nerve-wracking wind. I have never liked wind very much, though I respect it and understand that metaphorically it has to do with the inevitability of change. But then I've always had a paradoxical relationship to change, too: I want it, but I dislike it.

Anyway, this morning I woke up just as the sky was brightening to the sound of ferocious, rip-the-shingles-off-the-roof wind. Rain slashed at the windows as though giving them a hefty flogging. I huddled down in bed and tried to go back to sleep buried under Jae's arm, but the noises kept me awake. I felt like I was on a boat tossing about at sea.

Things had died down a bit by the time I left for the shop at 11:30. But I read in the New York Times this morning that the wind was so severe during the morning commute that it felled trees across the rails of commuter trains, blew over a tractor trailer truck on the GW Bridge, knocked down pedestrians on street corners, and threatened a ferry crossing from New Jersey so much that passengers were calling 911. (They arrived safely, escorted by the Coast Guard and the NYPD.) And the temperature hit 60-degrees today. This is not to mention that we have had three thunder-and-lightning storms this month. Three! In January!

I understand that signs of global warming can be found in erratic weather patterns and the increasing severity of storms. If this all isn't a sign of global warming...

Let us all try to do better by our environment. Or we'll all end up swimming with the fishes.

1 comment:

Mary Anne Davis said...

Global warming is a disconcerting reality. I have shingles in my yard from night before last's storm. Yikes!