A Chinook Wind Blows
November 17, 2009
In the Penbrooke back yard, I watched the wind in the grass today. The weatherman gave a wind warning of 100 mph in southern Alberta. I don’t know how fast the wind was going in Calgary, but I watched the tufts of the fall’s uncut lawn undulate under its power. The clumps of green grass on the lawn are uneven, some four inches high, some six, some bordering eight inches high and they were weaving their way in and out and through each other in the breeze. Flattened into one another, actually, by the gusts. When the wind hit the garage it changed direction from going east to moving north and its abrupt right-angle turn at that point was fascinating me. “Easy,” said Trell, “when the wind hits the garage it must turn and has no place to go but north. You are seeing the grass make the same movement the wind is making.”
“Beautiful,” I said.
“Trust you to find something charming about all of this,” said Trell, for shingles were randomly falling from the roof of the house. “Don’t worry,” he said, “I will pick those up when the wind quits.”
Tonight as I was ready to leave he said, “Arta, that wind you were admiring this afternoon has blown over part of your fence on the south side of the house.”
Oh well. Still beautiful.
As I painted cupboards today, I was remembering a course I took one year on different ways to paint the inside walls of a house. The university had extension courses for everything. I had been thinking about all of the tips that the instructor gave for he had us doing sample projects for two 8 hour days. That means, he had a chance to give many suggestions. To clean a brush so that you can load it up with a new colour, he said, wash the paint out of the brush and then roll the handle of the brush back and forth between your hands, letting the power of the roll cast the excess water out of the newly cleaned brush. This is best done outside, I remembered.
A tip that wasn’t given in the class is to turn off the power drill before lifting the stirring mechanism out of the paint. I do have a good sense of that when I am whipping cream. Ninety-nine percent of the time I turn off the mix master before raising the beaters out of the mixing bowl. Today, I figured out that the skill of turning off a mix master can be transferred to turning off the drill before lifting it out of the paint as well.
Arta
November 17, 2009
In the Penbrooke back yard, I watched the wind in the grass today. The weatherman gave a wind warning of 100 mph in southern Alberta. I don’t know how fast the wind was going in Calgary, but I watched the tufts of the fall’s uncut lawn undulate under its power. The clumps of green grass on the lawn are uneven, some four inches high, some six, some bordering eight inches high and they were weaving their way in and out and through each other in the breeze. Flattened into one another, actually, by the gusts. When the wind hit the garage it changed direction from going east to moving north and its abrupt right-angle turn at that point was fascinating me. “Easy,” said Trell, “when the wind hits the garage it must turn and has no place to go but north. You are seeing the grass make the same movement the wind is making.”
“Beautiful,” I said.
“Trust you to find something charming about all of this,” said Trell, for shingles were randomly falling from the roof of the house. “Don’t worry,” he said, “I will pick those up when the wind quits.”
Tonight as I was ready to leave he said, “Arta, that wind you were admiring this afternoon has blown over part of your fence on the south side of the house.”
Oh well. Still beautiful.
As I painted cupboards today, I was remembering a course I took one year on different ways to paint the inside walls of a house. The university had extension courses for everything. I had been thinking about all of the tips that the instructor gave for he had us doing sample projects for two 8 hour days. That means, he had a chance to give many suggestions. To clean a brush so that you can load it up with a new colour, he said, wash the paint out of the brush and then roll the handle of the brush back and forth between your hands, letting the power of the roll cast the excess water out of the newly cleaned brush. This is best done outside, I remembered.
A tip that wasn’t given in the class is to turn off the power drill before lifting the stirring mechanism out of the paint. I do have a good sense of that when I am whipping cream. Ninety-nine percent of the time I turn off the mix master before raising the beaters out of the mixing bowl. Today, I figured out that the skill of turning off a mix master can be transferred to turning off the drill before lifting it out of the paint as well.
Arta
The wind woke my up at 3 am on Sunday morning. This afternoon, I passed by a tree, downed from the wind.
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