Rainy, sunny and windy

The long-awaited rain finally showered upon the parched land last Friday night and Saturday, in the third week of autumn. My Saturday morning was leisurely spent on bed, tucking myself in a warm quilt and reading under a light. I remember that the sky was leaden outside.  It was quiet in the neighborhood, except for the rhythmical dripping sounds from the roof and the ground. The peace was occasionally broken by the splashing noises from the street when a car collided with the then watery road surface. How dearly  they were after more than nine months of drought! I pricked up my ears to the melody, longing for the next one to come. It filled my heart with joys,  a joy that only rainy weather can bring.

 

But the rain only lasted a day and a night, when the sky cleared up on Sunday and the sun came out again.  Then in the wee hour of Monday morning around 2: 40 am, I was woken up by the howling wind from the half-opened windows. It was Santa Ana wind, notoriously known for its being strong, dry and warm or cold, visiting us every year. At dawn around 7 am, I got up and went downstairs to the backyard, looking worryingly at the tall avocado tree swaying hard from side to side. It will need to be cut one day, I told myself, as the extensive branches and leaves are now too close to the neighbor’s window.

 

On my way to work around 8:30, the wind seemed to be at its peak. It was like a powered mad man, gusting through the streets and alleys , whipping the trees, swirling the leaves and small branches off to the ground and into the air.  When small particles, such as the flying pine needles were dropped with force from the air to the car, it felt like hails. Trees by the streets were bending hard in the wind, with some snapped down in half, and some even uprooted from the soil. Living here for so many years, I am so used to the scenes, the damages or the warnings of wild fires it could bring forth, but I was saddened yesterday (10/15/2018) at the news of a 34-old woman living in a nearby city being killed by a big tree crashed over her car. What a catastrophe!

 

The wind finally died down this afternoon (Tuesday 10/16/2018),  littering in its wake the broken branches and piles of leaves, green or yellow alike, over the messy roadsides and lawns. When nature has its power beyond control, tragedies arise, and we as human beings sometimes feel so powerless, like ants in front of an untamed monster.