I’m being blinded by a sun-shadow! Sun-shadow, sun-shadow! The sky directly outside my window is a glazed-looking, pure shade of blue. There are clouds clipping by and each one is outlined in blinding white light. In addition, the sun keeps stabbing me in the eyes. Stab! Ow! I’m forced to pull the curtains to save my eyes, but the sun is still caressing the tops of my knuckles and warming my hands in the process.
It’s windy as all get out today. I like that phrase: “all get out.” Who came up with that, do you suppose? I wonder how long it’s been in use and where it originated. Googling isn’t helping much with the mystery, although I find that apparently you can use “all get out” with any adjective. “Lithe as all get out, depressed as all get out, cheerful as all get out, bloggy as all get out.”
I could hear the rain and the wind this morning, pressing on the house, running little windy fingers under the eaves looking for a way in, shaking the windows in the frames, trying to push everything out of its way. “Out of my way, house!” said the wind, “I’m coming through!”
The wind is so windy it’s making the trees and flagpoles zip back and forth, bendy jazzercizers. The flags outside the building are straight and flat, snapping their fingers in time with the wind’s frenetic rhythm. The flags are flying backwards messages of “SIXA SIXA SIXA” and they look like they’ve got somewhere to go. They’re trying desperately to go there with the wind, but they’re tied to the flagpoles, stuck, fast.
The wind is trying to push cars off the roads. It’s trying to lift you off your feet. It’s determined to grab and take as much as it can carry with it. The lighter, the better. Better batten down your hatches before they fly away.* Make sure your children aren’t light on their feet. Brace yourself!
*It’s not easy to find good hatches these days.