Mistral Wind at Night

 Last night the wind was incredible. We were up to about 2 hoping for it to ease. Rune was afraid as there was nowhere to go to hide from the noise of it. I’ve been reading a lot and my recent reading brought some interesting thoughts to my mind as we huddled down against the assault. 

It sounded like giants were outside throwing tornadoes of wind at each other. It seemed to be coming from all directions, slamming the house, rattling the shutters, uplifting everything in its path and the crashing it somewhere else. I had to get up and batten down some things that were making a lot of noise. I just finished reading a fantastic book on Antarctic exploration at the beginning of the 20th century and the sad story of  Robert Falcon Scott. I couldn’t help but imagine being in a tent, in the frozen tundra, 40 below temperature with a blizzard outside. I can imagine just lying in wait for something to come crashing down…Here, I worry about the gigantic trees the line the back yard,,,huge umbrella pines that are already leaning way over. They are away from the house but you never know. I took my flashlight and peered outside…all was in a scramble…potted plants everywhere. I worried about a big Buddha that I have but he seemed secure…

I could see activity in the greenhouses below…they are just metal arches with white tarp like covering…the couple who work these fields must have been in a frenzy trying not to lose all of the structure. They grow anemones, strawberries and other similar things. They have 2 mean Malinois dogs that roam their crop plots which are many and spread over many blocks, shoehorned into the neighborhood, most disconnected from each other so they have to drive from one to another, loading the dogs into their truck. They are not friendly people.

My last thought was of my Father and how, on a night light that, he would have had to get into his dark green company car and been out all night supervising men in fixing and repairing downed electrical lines. I can see him in my mind in his yellow hard hat with La Barge handwritten on it. ( My father put his name on everything).

and with all of that going through my head, I covered Rune with his fuzzy blanket and read until my slight sleeping pill kicked in. 

Did I mention I have clothes on the clothesline ( no on in FRA uses clothes dryers)