Tailwinds

Tuesday was a wild one. I knew it was going to be a blustery day when I was weaving through an obstacle course of wind-tossed garbage cans in the road early in the morning. But the strength of the heavy winds really struck home when later that morning I heard a creaking groan and then a terrible crash; my heavy, tied-down ladder had succumbed to the forces of nature. (Luckily I was on the ground when it was blown over, or I would have been trapped on the roof enjoying the breeze for who knows how long..!)



Hmm, it was time to take this wind seriously. Big sections of trees were getting ripped off and flung into roads...



All over the place, whole trees and limbs were thrown across utility lines, cutting power to various streets...





Shopping carts were tossed around like tumbleweed. (ok, well, not really...)



But by mid afternoon it was getting blustery in a biblical way. The radio declared gusts of over 40mph. Police were scrambling to block off streets and watch over stop-light-less intersections.





But then by late afternoon, just as the havoc and mayhem was reaching a crescendo all around the lower valley, and it appeared that the very heavens were bent on destruction of all of poor man's feeble works...the winds suddenly dissipated, like someone turned off a faucet.

All became calm again, right around sunset.



-possibly the last sunset of 2008, if the predicted snow comes Wednesday...



A fiery beauty to round out another year, for us who remain here to see it come to a close.



What will the next year bring...



...we'll soon find out. Here's hoping for a good New Year..!