Several weeks ago I wrote the first two paragraphs of this blog but never published it for some reason I don't remember now. School was not out yet and apparently we had a big windstorm going on. I wrote: "The wind is blowing outside my classroom window. It's a sound we don't usually get here in Arizona. There were warnings last night, though. And a memo to staff: "High wind advisory today. Please notify all of your students to be careful of falling branches and debris. Thanks!"
"Listen! The wind! The soft roar outside my room takes me thousands of miles from here to a long lake in northwestern Maine: Mooselookmeguntic, where my sister and her in-laws have a cabin right on the lake. I've heard the wind there many a morning. Some of my happiest memories are of time in that cabin, listening to the wind, drinking in the sunset, walking the road to the bridge, crossing the iced-over water to Toothaker Island."
When I was at the cabin last weekend, it was somewhat windy off and on, especially Friday evening, just after we arrived. Sunset was just beginning and I took a few nice pictures (see previous entry). I went inside to unpack and was surprised, when I looked outside a few minutes later. The beautiful sunset was gone, the mountains across the lake obliterated. There was a loud roar coming through the windows and rain was pouring from the sky! Just that fast!
I went outside to grab a few pictures, but the wind was so strong and the rain driving so hard that I could only get two before I had to run for cover. Now here's the strange part: this rain and fog lasted only about 10 minutes. Then, just as quickly as it came, the wind and rain died down, the fog lifted, the mountain returned to view, the sun came out and continued to set. Except for the freshly-washed look, you would never know it had rained.
