Owning it.

"A Wind of Change"
oil on wood
by chris buzelli

It's been windy these last few days. Really windy. On our summer canoe trip we, with our travelling companions, talked about the ancients and their understanding that everyone was more connected to, or identified with, one of the four elements: Earth, Wind, Water, Fire. They began to identify themselves based on which of the four they found, literally, most attractive. Sandi was water, because she loves to swim. Margruite was fire, because she's loves to build them, and is good at it. Ron was earth, because he's a gardener. Which left me with wind (or air), because I'm full of it!? Sigh.

Today I didn't ride. The wind was howling at 50 to 70 ks from the North, and three miles with that kind of a side wind, on wet pavement, is just not reasonable. So I shirked, and drove in with Bekah, and then caught a ride home with Marion.

Here's the thing (love that phrase): if I'm wind (air), why do I hate it so? Am I that wildly, and constantly, conflicted and at war with myself? Every morning I listen to the weather and hope for a reasonable wind report. By this I mean not only a report of windspeed, but of direction. You would not believe how many times a city-based reporter will assume that reporting wind direction is unnecessary. At least that's what I'm concluding from their haphazard attitude to it. I guess the currents created by the buildings of a city make the direction of the wind unnecessary. Even so, wind direction is an indicater of the weather to come. Generally a West wind will be a drying wind, and in winter this means that weather will likely stabilize, even warm up. An East wind however, usually indicates coming precipitation, and some sort of weather event. Similarly, a South wind, especially if it's a SouthEast wind, will likely bring some sort of change in the weather with it. And a North wind cools things.

When I'm riding my bane is the wind. A big head or side wind can stretch a 20 minute ride into 35 or 40 minutes, and have the near opposite effect if it's a tail wind. I've really worked, these last few years, at seeing the winds as my "mountains". Since there aren't many hills around here to exert yourself climbing, you can see a strong wind as a big hill, and as an opportunity to strengthen your legs. So, especially on my rides to and from work, where the length of the ride is quite short, I'll work as hard as I can for those miles into a stiff wind. I'm trying to embrace my "windness" I guess. I'm trying to own it, to use it. Maybe that's what this blog is about too.