Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy. That's what I become as March winds make an appearance in my home town. I wrote the following piece about the wind quite a few years ago, and, sadly, it is still relevant today. If the howling winds are driving you to distraction where you live, perhaps I can get a little sympathy from you!
The
phrase ‘spring winds’ may conjure up feelings of a soft breeze against your
face on a warm day-but not in El Paso, Texas.
For most of the year, our weather is enviable. We laugh as we walk out the door in January,
tennis rackets in hand, while the Weather Channel is announcing another cold
front from Canada moving down into Michigan.
We speculate as to how our friends who recently moved to
West Virginia are affording their heating bills this winter. We plan intimate outdoor suppers in front of
the kiva fireplace in the patio in mid-December. But when March blows in like a lion, El
Pasoans begin fearing the worst.
Maybe
the winds won’t be as bad this year. Or
maybe they won’t last as long. Or maybe
we are just imagining how awful they were last year. “My parents told me they remember the winds
being around until June one year,” moans a pessimistic friend of mine. The morning weather caster skips over the
current prediction of a 75 degree day to warn us, almost gleefully, that 50 mile per
hour winds are on the way, and will probably last a week. The city hunkers down.
I
decide I had better get my errands done quickly. The receptionist at the veterinary office
makes the usual small talk while ringing up the charge for the dogs’ medicine
and then asks if I have heard today’s weather report. I have, and we exchange ideas about how soon
the winds will arrive. The older lady at
the feed store hands me my sack of dog food and asks if it is getting windy outside
yet. I tell her no, but that I am sure
the wind is coming. We both shake our
heads at the futility of trying to control the weather, and, I suspect, our
advancing ages as well. The young,
efficient cable TV installer gets his job done at our house without much
chit-chat, but he can’t resist a parting comment. “Guess those winds are going to kick up
pretty soon, huh?” Yes, I guess they
are.
The
spring winds in El Paso are inescapable.
They howl relentlessly for what seems to be an eternity. Dust is everywhere-on the furniture, on the
desks at school, on the dashboard, and in your eyes, nose, and ears. Contact lens wearers switch over to coke
bottle lens eye glasses.
And El Pasoans get testy. Grocery checkers hand over sacks without even bothering to wish you a good day. School teachers contemplate early retirement as students stare out the window at the flailing branches. And the winds are incredibly loud. TV sets have to be turned up even louder, and cell phone users on the street search for a protected corner to answer their innumerable calls.
And El Pasoans get testy. Grocery checkers hand over sacks without even bothering to wish you a good day. School teachers contemplate early retirement as students stare out the window at the flailing branches. And the winds are incredibly loud. TV sets have to be turned up even louder, and cell phone users on the street search for a protected corner to answer their innumerable calls.
Life
is put on hold. Everything except the
bare necessities of life must wait until the wind stops. Vegetables for the garden have to be started
inside in small containers and left there, getting leggy, until the winds
stop. My husband Wayne and I often remind each
other of the spring we flaunted Mother Nature and planted the garden
early. The winds blew so hard the next
day that they snapped the tiny seedlings off at ground level. The garden just disappeared overnight. No use cleaning the swimming pool
either. It’s full of black mud and
debris.
Plastic bags fly around the city
until they impale themselves on tall ocotillo plants or thorny mesquite
trees. Homeowners hope the trash will
just keep blowing into someone else’s yard.
Ugly scene, huh? |
See the bag on the fence? |
I
asked one of my college students from New Jersey how he was enjoying life in the
desert southwest. He said he loves the
weather. “But how about our winds?” I
inquired, expecting to draw out his true feelings. He said they were no problem, because El Paso is
the only city in which he has lived where he can wear sandals all year
long. “You could never do that in New
Jersey,” he assured me, sticking out both feet to show off his comfortable
footwear.
I’ll
have to keep that in mind when the 50 mile per hour winds wake me before the
alarm sounds in the morning. Maybe I’ll
put on a pair of sandals before I head out the door to face the elements.
I am with you on those awful El Paso winds. True we never have had a tornado or twister as some call it, but ours is sooo annoying. They always make me a bit nervous! As for our hairdos, ha! The wind swept look is everybody's look. Funny at times though when we see some people with their hair standing on end as they walk into a store or where ever! But that could be me, too. Yes, we have pretty nice weather here, but the windy season is NOT my favorite time. Thanks for posting this. I can truly relate to this entry. Stay grounded!! pc
ReplyDeleteLooks like the wind is easing up a bit these days. I rush outside the minute it calms down. Yes, lots of bad hair days, but at least I have an excuse!
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