January 16 - January 31, 2009

Yikes, the weather challenges have continued. Thinking that things would settle down after the record snow and subsequent mudslides, I began settling back into my routine. Mother Nature, however, had something else in mind. All of the sudden the Gorge winds became noticeably, undeniably, “gusty.” Pretty soon, I could hear the wind roaring through the trees even within the comfort of the house. My cat hid under the bed and would not emerge until the winds quieted down – laying on top of my bed, I wondered if I should the same, but the prospect of laying on my back underneath the bed for hours was not very appealing (I know....possible boredom beat concerns about safety.) One of the times that I went into town, I had a pretty scary ride home when the wind gusts rocked my cute little Toyota RAV and I had to steer carefully. I wondered if I should have purchased a Hummer instead. I could see huge trees swaying back and forth in the wind and I worried that one of them would come crashing down. No sooner had I had those thoughts that, in truth, trees did come crashing down. Over the next couple of days, there were trees everywhere, blocking roads and paths. The local newspaper counted 30 trees down in one of the area parks. I heard one woman say that a meteorologist who lives in Corbett had clocked winds at 114 mph! In the 1980s I lived in Juneau, Alaska, where “Taku winds” gust up to 70 mph, so I was no stranger to these vigorous winds, but the Taku winds seemed tame compared to what I was experiencing now! Fortunately, no trees came crashing down on the house. Instead, the winds tore off the gutters and knocked over the lion statutes in the front of the house – inconsequential damage compared to what could have occurred.

That darn Dave was still on vacation, having a good time on warm beaches while the “record winds” came through the Gorge. After a couple of days of having no power and the darn generator not working as reliably as I had expected, I picked him up from the airport and, suddenly, things were fine – no more winds, the power was restored, the trees on the road were cleared off – it almost seemed like I had made the whole thing up! Dang, was he lucky or what, missing out on the “wind adventures!”