The Windy City - the other one

Today is a windy day in Albuquerque.  What this means is you can’t see the mountains with the amount of sand in the air.  Tumble weed is blowing.  And you have to follow some unique rules to not have this ruin your day.

Today I had shopping carts start flying out of the penned up area and jump the metal line that is supposed to keep them in.  There is a Midas touch in putting a shopping cart inside another, too little force and it doesn’t work, too much and you have the “for every action… there is a reaction.”  Today the reaction happened after I was 4 steps away and I had to run back to protect all the surrounding cars from my little faux pas.  Nightmare, but must have been funny to watch.  Actually a lot of things are funny to watch when you are watching a 6 foot tall woman.

One rule is to know the direction of the wind and park facing it so that the wind doesn’t take your door flying when you open the car door.  Granted, you do need to be concerned that it doesn’t slam on your legs as you open, but I think that’s easier to control.

Be prepared for flying debris.  Today I was startled when a big pile of leaves lifted right as I was about to drive through and literally blinded my vision for a second.

One day in Rio Rancho I was driving in an undeveloped area (meaning more sand flying).  When I came upon the largest tumble week I’ve ever seen.  It was – no kidding- the size of a VW Beetle.  The wind, in the corridor where I was, moved the tumble weed back and forth from one lane to another.   I was dancing with it and I know they are light weight, but I’m afraid there will be some thistle that will scratch my paint job, so I don’t feel like driving into it.  It was a funny moment.  Again, I’m sure if someone saw how I handled it, they had to be laughing at me. 

Wearing a dress on a windy day is tricky.  It’s one of those, “good luck with that” experiences. 

When it’s really blowing we will have a little pile of dust on the inside of the exterior doors at our house.  I hope to have a better seal on the doors of the house we are building.  When you see that pile you know that there is dust all over the house and you are just seeing a small portion of it.  I’m a neat freak, but not a clean freak so it doesn’t drive me crazy.  I have heard a few whines about the dusting here.  My thought is that you really need to get over that issue, unless you can afford hired help.  A little dust isn’t that big of a deal.