Oysterville Storm Damage, November 2012

We didn’t exactly creep our way home from Ocean Park last night, but we did watch the road ahead expectantly. The wind was blowing a gale with gusts of up to 52 miles per, according to Mike’s Long Beach Weather site. Not the worst winds we’ve experienced this year, but enough to make us cautious about blowdown on the road.

There wasn’t as much as you might think – a branch across our lane just past Nahcotta and another one closer to Oysterville. Neither was so big as to block the road entirely. Still, I didn’t feel totally safe from the threat of flying debris until we were snugly in our garage.

Oysterville Roadblock,  November 2012

It wasn’t all that late – about 7:30 I think – but it was pitchy black outside. I offered up a silent blessing to our PUD for keeping our power steady all during the storm. Even so, we had flashlights at the ready through the night and are still prepared to layer up, clothing-wise, should the lights go out and the furnace grow cold.

The comforting thing about a March storm (if ‘comforting’ is the right word, which I doubt), is that most of the trees that were planning to topple did so earlier in the season. The chances of blowdown taking out a powerline are slimmer than they were in November or December during the first of our big blows. Even so…

Espy Barn, December 1940

I don’t like the wind. It is unsettling. All those romantic notions of ‘the wind longs to play with your hair’ (according to Kahlil Gibran) are lost on me. I am like my Grandmother Espy in that regard. She didn’t mind the rain or even the snow here in winter, but she had an intense dislike of the wind. Come to think of it, she didn’t have a high regard for the outdoors, in general. She wasn’t one for solitary walks on the beach or an exploratory hike through the woods.

I know there are people who come to the coast with the express purpose of “enjoying the storms.” To each his own, I say. Today, I’m all for hunkering down and waiting for this, too, to pass.