five thousand shades of blue
Friday, February 08, 2002
Chainsaws revving up in the middle of the day are not a common occurrance in my neighbourhood. Of course, neither are windstorms topping out with 60-70mph gusts of wind (as happened yesterday). I was standing in my kitchen and happened to be looking out the back window at the row of (thankfully very flexible) hazelnut trees that reside just on the other side of our back fence: one moment they were just standing there as trees do, and suddenly, they were vying to be parallel to the ground. I blinked in disbelief because surely a sight like that was only meant for a special effect in a movie and not in my immediate proximity.
We never lost power and in fact our house (which had been scheduled to be the host house for a local meeting about scribal arts) became a sort of gathering spot for a few people who had lost power and never got the cancellation email. Other places around this town weren't so lucky; some places up the McKenzie River aren't expecting power back until sometime over the weekend. There were crushed pickups and streetlights out all over the place. We were terribly worried about a fragile tree in Marian's backyard, because if it went, it wouldhave either taken out part of her house, or an apartment building (thankfully, it did neither).
It is humbling to see a giant construction crane turning from the wind like some kind of god-sized weather vane. It's true what they say: nature always bats last.
is
this just not enough…?
