This Morning's 15 minutes went like this....

Well, it looks like the rain missed us altogether. Again. The cracks in the ground here are a bit scary. It's been a very dry spring.

But the wind is with us. Quite the entity all on it's own--the Oklahoma wind. I remember how my dad used to write home about it when he first came here to Oklahoma to "set up camp" for the rest of the family. Washington Irving, among others, mentioned it in his writing.

After days of it, I find it as irritating as constant rain. It all starts with our kitchen door, which opens on the west side of the house. So right now, with the gales coming out of the south, unless you remember to hold on tight to the second larger handle that dh installed on the door, it will go slamming into the two stops he's set up outside to keep it from ripping off the hinges completely. (Of course in the winter, the door threatens to pinch you whole when it gusts from the north. Thankfully the wind isn't as bad during the colder months as it is during the spring and summer.) The wind will literally tear the door from your fingers (and break several nails, I can attest to personally!) if all you have is the grip the little manufacturer's lever provides. Forget combing your hair. Keep your eyes covered or you're dealing with sand or elm seeds flinging themselves right at your eyeballs. The poor birds--I've seen them suspended in mid air trying to go against the wind to land on a wire. I can't imagine the energy it must take. Give up and stay home! It will even move your car on the highway. I kid you not. Sometimes I seriously wonder if I have a flat, and all it is is the wind bearing down against the side of the car trying to move me into another lane.

At least when it rains you have the consolation of knowing that the moisture is doing us some good. With the wind, I have yet to find a positive side unless you count planting elm trees in Kansas. They are beginning to harnass it for energy around here, which makes all kinds of sense. Too bad we can't use it in place of gasoline. Now that would be something! It could blow all day every day at 25 to 30 mph if I could use it to run my car. Now I'm having visions of vehicles with large sails, blowing down the highway on wheels. LOL! Before you know it, we'd have to have sail decoration legislation to keep gang insignia off the car sails. Good grief--the direction the mind goes. And on one cup of coffee!

I guess perhaps another good that comes from the wind is the extra calories I have to use to walk against it. :) I've been walking regularly for several days now, and am beginning to really enjoy it. I've had to do it sans music, since my ds "helped" me clear the table and dropped my CD player on the tile floor in the kitchen. It has been a blessing in disguise I think. I can get lost in my own thoughts or practice signing. I've also discovered that the trees that I thought were having trouble leafing out because of lack of rain were actually maple trees that were so full of "helicopters" that they hid the leaves and the pale brown of them made the trees look like they had dried out leaves. (Okay, so maybe I need to have my eye perscription changed!) I have never seen so many potential maple trees in all my life. And as I've mentioned before the little elm seed dots are right behind the helicopters, sailing on the breezes. Other trees have produced little clusters that look like miniature grapes. I should find out what sort of trees those are. At any rate, when we do get a gully-washer and all that seed gets swept down into the storm drains we could have ourselves a mess.

Ding, ding! :)