High winds

Out at the Point this afternoon.

For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.

~ James Baldwin

Strange light. (On the way to the Point this afternoon.)  Lots of debris on the roads.

Wow.  And Wow!  It’s been a crazy-windy day.  I went out to the Point for a little while this afternoon to have a look at the water.  According to the weather station there, the winds were out of the northwest and blowing at 52.1 mph.  That’s sustained winds!  I don’t know what the gusts were, but saw that they’re having gusts up to 82 mph in Ocean City.  It’s around 3 PM as I write this and the wind sounds like it’s picking up.

Making a splash.

And there goes the kid’s playhouse we inherited with the property, flying by.  (I hope no witches were caught under it when it landed.)  I don’t know if we’ll be able to fix it this time around.  Looks pretty smashed up.  I had to go out earlier and grab the grill.  The wind was pushing it across the deck.  A few more feet and it would have hit the glass patio doors.  The bird feeders fell pretty early in the day.  The last time I checked, the bluebird houses were still hanging in there.

Whoosh!

Out at the point, it is wild and the energy is invigorating.  When I first thought about going out there, fear was on the side of not going.  Maybe a bit of commonsense, too.  Before the fear could take hold, I shot out of here as fast as I could and let the momentum take me.

Big waves for the Sound.

I’m glad I went.  It was an amazing experience.  There were times when the wind had more control over my body than I did.  I stayed far enough from the water to avoid the rogue waves.  I don’t think the photographs I took accurately portray the strength of the wind and the waves, but that’s usually the case.  I also had a lot of blurred images.  It was impossible to hold the camera still.

Wheeee!

As you can tell from the images, the water is rough and rather mean looking with its steel gray and muddy colors.

On the shore.

We’ve been lucky in terms of electricity.  Our power went out briefly a little while ago but it really wasn’t more than a flicker.  I just checked the website for our power company and some of the nearby houses are without power.  Our power lines, from the street to the house, are underground.  It’s the lines out by the roads that will cause problems if they get blown down or pushed down by falling trees.

Water blowing everywhere.

Leaves keep flying by the office window.  It’s almost hypnotizing to watch.  Sometimes they swirl around in leaf tornadoes.  The sound of the wind has gone from a low-pitched howl to a high-pitched (and steady) whine.  It sometimes sounds like small pebbles are hitting the roof.  Probably just small debris from the trees skidding over.

On the way home from the Point.

The weather folks are saying it’s pretty much at its peak for us now and the wind will start to decrease a bit after 6 PM.  That means the wind will be blowing at 20-30 mph instead of 40-60 mph.  There are all kinds of warnings in effect.  The one I find fascinating is the Marine Weather Statement advising that there will be blow out tides during low tides through Saturday morning.  According to the warning, the northwest winds will cause the water levels to drop between 2 and 4 feet below normal low tide levels.  That will be interesting to see.

More debris.

I’d better get this posted while we still have power.  Thanks for stopping by and joining me on a short and windy adventure.  It doesn’t look like we’ll see the sunset this evening.  We’ve seen a few glimmers of sunlight here and there this afternoon, but the cloud cover is still pretty thick most of the time.  Sunset is scheduled for 5:58 PM.  I might go down to the Point just to see the water again.  Join me if you like.  Maybe we’ll get lucky and the clouds will give us a break so we can watch the sun go down.

Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just Be.  🙂

Saw this lady in a wheat field on my the way home.

A few of the 10,000 reasons to be happy:  581)  Making headway with my fear of storms and strong winds.  582)  Underground power lines and the fact that our power is still on.  583)  Listening to the various sounds the wind makes.  584)  The brilliant green of the wheat fields.  585)  The way the wind causes waves and ripples in the grass.

See ya later!

Wild and crazy.