Weather Just Like Chicago

Weather – well. I find it intriguing. Last week, the sunshine and pleasant breezes evaporated moisture from the daily mists and humidity levels dropped to about 70%.  The air actually felt dry, stars were abundant in the night sky and we had success maintaining a bonfire Saturday night. By Sunday morning things had changed. The winds started howling over the mountains and through the trees and heavy mist blew horizontally saturating everything. It must be a winter storm here, similar in some ways to a cold front in Chicago accompanied by 40mph gusts and blowing snow. Different however because the temperature here dipped only to 58 F and the winds and mist blew heavily for two days. It has gradually lightened since Monday, but it is still windy and wet, but more sunshine and rainbows now. It reminds me much of lake effect snow in Chicago with the intermittent precipitation glistening in the sunlight and broken clouds quickly blowing overhead. Our rubber boots are seeing some good use.

Sunday night, the boys and I were walking home from school after feeding the hamsters. It was dark, especially on the trail leading from the school. Michael fearlessly led the way carefully watching the path in front of him as water dripped from the thick foliage overhead. We reached the road as it turned into the oncoming winds. Pelted by the heavy mist, hoods blowing off of our heads, I felt alive, euphoric, stimulated, invigorated. The boys raised their arms, “Hello wind, hello rain!” Occasionally a car would approach us and Michael’s role was to turn on the flashlight and shine it toward the car so the driver would avoid us. John played his role by waving to each passing vehicle. Our night vision improved as we walked, as long as we were not blinded by the oncoming headlights. They recognized mud puddles to jump over and pointed to the tree silhouettes waving against the sky. They found the gate to the pasture and stopped to look at a couple of stars peaking through the clouds in the western sky as the mist continued to pelt us from the east. Our night vision was now keen enough to see a marked difference between the shades of light on the ground. The green grass appeared a lighter gray, the piles of horse manure a darker gray and the leafcutter ant mounds were black. Curious to see if the ants were active, we saw that their trails were empty but they were busy carrying soil up from their holes and building their mounds higher. The last steps to our front porch  brought happy shouts of, “Mom, mom we’re all wet. Mom, our night vision is really really good. We can see everything in the dark.”

Signed M