Doggone It!

I’m tired of the constant, relentless wind; if it were a gentle breeze, I might be able to tolerate it, but it’s been continual high winds with gusts between 20-70 mph for the past month.

I don’t go outside in the wind as it peels the skin off my arms and pits my face with sand, leaving a grittiness behind that has to be showered off and calmed with oceans of lotions. My windshields are dangerously pitted and have to be replaced, which is not going to happen until the winds calm down. My plants are so dry they appear to have been blow-torched, but it’s just the ferocity of the desert winds attacking them 24/7.

The wind gives me a tension, a headache, a crabbiness I don’t need in my life. I find myself short-tempered and responding to minor happenings as if they were a much bigger deal. Evidence Mia, who came back from her week away refusing to use the doggy door. She scratches on the glass sliding door and won't come through the doggy door even when I tempt her with a pupparoni stick, one of her favorite “good girl” treats. I began screaming at her to stop it, which didn’t work at all. I’ve tried to ignore her, but that’s as much a challenge as ignoring the metallic dissonance of the hot water heater enclosure that has been rent by the wind and reacts noisily to each and every gust. One night the metal banging and clanging outside the house next door was so overwhelming that I slept in the guest room!

What’s odd is that how strongly the winds blow depends on where in the valley one is. At my house, the winds are ferocious; however, across the highway there can be nary a breath of air moving while I’m battening down the hatches for another onslaught. However, one thing is sure: if it’s time for either world-class tennis or golf, the wind is going to blow wherever the games are being played!

This is the time of the year that I like to open the house and let in the fresh air, but even that pleasure has been curtailed by Mother Nature. If the wind doesn’t stop soon, I’m going to throw caution to the wind and indulge in another chocolate chip cookie binge! It won’t make the winds die down, but it might lessen my reaction to it.