Woke up to heavy winds. Opened one eye, saw the birch tree branches weaving back and forth like drunken sailors. Heard the wind howl a low, plaintive sound. Sounded (I thought) like someone blowing into a coca cola bottle – the old glass kind. This, I realized, is also the sound of wind, just on a smaller scale. Decided that I could not deal and burrowed deeper under the covers. Now I know why bears hibernate. When it gets windy, they too cannot deal.

Had to pee. Got up. Emptied my full bladder. Considered going back to bed, but decided it against it. Had animals to check in on. I worry more on windy days (I worry all the time anyways) that a tree might have fallen in the pen area. I

got up and dressed, went outside to feed, water, and pick up poop. Horses were fine.

As I engaged in the now time honored task of picking up manure, I thought some about the wind. The odd thing is you can’t see it. You can hear it – it makes sounds in brushing against and hitting objects. Leaves skitter, balls roll, trash can lids rattle, tree limbs rattle. You can see it. On any given day, these objects, plus more, are relocated. And you can feel it. The movement of the wind dries out the skin and rumples the hair. Can one taste the wind? I guess not.

I finished poop scooping and then went back in time and put things back in their rightful places. I secured things, like empty buckets, by stashing them against walls and in corners. I then stepped into the horse stall and waited for the wind to die down because on days like this, walking uphill, into it, are difficult. “Dang wind, blasted wind, damn wind, fucking wind, stop, stop, stop right now” I yell, but to no avail – my shouting is subsumed by the wind’s lion like roar. For fun, I turn around and allow the wind to push me downhill. Feels like a hand on my back, urging me to pick up my pace, which I do. I do this well knowing that I’ll pay the price. In less than a minute I’ll resume walking uphill, and will find this to be twice as difficult as previously since I have lost so much ground.

The most amazing thing about the wind is that though we hear it and bear evidence to what it does, we do not see it. I took a class called The Weather when I was an undergraduate. I failed it – it was the only class that I ever failed in college. I took it because it was an elective. I took it because I wanted to know two things. The first was, what were the names of the clouds? And the second and third was, where did the wind come from and how did it work?

The teacher went over the names of the clouds on the first day of class; this was after going over the syllabus. Nimbostratus, altostratus, cumulostratus – these are the terms we were taught. Then a few days later, he talked about the wind. As I understood it, the wind was brought about by warm air rising and cold air rushing in.

As I understood it. I just could not wrap my head around this. In other words, this didn’t then and still doesn’t make much sense. Questions begat questions, questions that were never answered. Like, where did the warm air go? How come there is cold wind and warm wind? And what, exactly, is wind?

I hate to admit to my stupidity. I know that wind and its movement have something to do with high and low pressure systems. I also know that high and low pressure systems have something to do with barometric pressure. And I know that if the barometric pressure is rising that the weather is going to change for the better.

Well, I guess I have just admitted to my stupidity. Not a good feeling. I will, when I have a spare minute, try to find out more about wind.

Next: 283. 10/24/14: Rainbow’s Injury