It's been wet today here in southeastern Alaska and the wind is calm. An audio warning just broke in on the television informing us that we are to expect widespread high winds accompanied with heavy rains tonight. What's up with that?

In 1964 I think it was, hurricane-like winds came up the Oregon coast from California off the Pacific ocean. Roofs came off, chimneys fell, great swaths of forest were blown down- looking like feather fans - some people had no electricity for several weeks.

I happened to be at my brother's house that day, in a narrow ravine. My brother had a hen nesting under an upsside down barrel on the slope past the house. The wind blew the barrel down the hill, under a single strand electric fence, and then it turned around and 'barreled' up the hill again.

So. I like wind. And I like it when this hundred year old house shudders with each blast. But I've gotten a bit leery of the really heavy stuff. Especially after Katrina.