Wind

People here say that spring is their least favorite season because of the wind.  Now that I'm working on the West side, I understand that position a bit better although I think I'll always enjoy spring overtaking winter, leaves on the trees, flowers blooming, and temperatures warming.
     We live close to the mountains and there are trees in our neighborhood, so we don't suffer the worst of the wind.  But on the West side where I teach, the terrain is very flat.  In Albuquerque, any land that is not irrigated, except for the narrow bosque along the river, is dusty, sandy desert.  So the wind gets whipping across this flat desert and creates dust and sand storms.  Very often I go for a walk at lunch time, but when it's very windy I just can't.  The first time it happened I tried not to wimp out, but I couldn't breathe and I couldn't see and then a rock hit me in the head!  I was the only person outside, so I took the hint and fled to my room.  The kids with asthma (I estimate 10% of my students) have to be kept indoors during recess when there are air quality warnings due to an excess of coarse particulates.  Because my school consists of a collection of buildings and trailers, the kids have to go outside -- the gym is a separate building, the library is a separate building, I teach in a trailer, and many of the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classrooms are in trailers.  The kindergarten classrooms are in a building of their own, separate from all those others and from the cafeteria.  By the time the kids get to my portable, three are wheezing and two have something in their eyes...  it is no fun.
     Driving is also no fun on windy days.  Tumbleweed is large and scary when it comes rolling across the highway, and you can't swerve if there's heavy traffic, so you just hit it and it sort of explodes.  If you're lucky, it won't scratch your car.  Stephen saw a road sign the other day that read, "VISIBILITY MAY BE 0."   Driving home from the studio at dusk on Central Ave. (Route 66) the wind buffets the car, the dust obscures your view, and garbage flies around the street.  Add that to the crazy people that come out at sunset, and you have a very tense commute.  One day I was driving Stephen's truck and the wind was so strong that I couldn't open the door to get out when I stopped at the grocery store.  Grocery carts were blowing all over the parking lot, running into parked cars and tipping over.
     We were walking in the open space behind our house one day when we saw the wind start to pick up West of us.   This is just the beginning.

Every day isn't like this, or I would share the general opinion of spring.  Fortunately, there are many beautiful days as well.  But here's a typical spring day in my front yard (and remember, we're somewhat sheltered).

And then there's the red dust that settles on everything.  I took this photo in my portable at school just a couple days after I cleaned this area.

 And... our I blew away.