Wind

As a west coaster through and through, my experience with a range of weather conditions has always been limited. hot, warm, cold, wet dry. Only at the coast did we have weather. And it's memories of weekends and vacations there that come rushing back during days like today. It's not that it's cold today, it's above freezing, it's just so windy.

I remember flying kites with Dad at the beach when I was 14, 15. He'd wrap his arms around me to hold me down as I felt the wind pull the kite and us. We'd have to measure the wind with the little wind gauge to determine which lines to put on the kite (and which kite could handle the wind speed that day). We'd launch kites and fly and it was so great to spend that time together. One of the last things I packed before we moved out here was a kite. My sister and I sat on the floor and tried to decide what to do with them. We sent a special pair to our Coast Friends and my sister and I picked a kite and related equipment each. It's bundled up the closet here, but I should remember it in the spring. It's surely flat enough here to fly it.

Or Dad and I would go fishing out in the ocean or sometimes in the bay. Mom didn't like it when we went in the ocean and we stopped going that far out at some point after the sand started filling the mouth of the bay and it got dangerous. I think some boats capsized even, coming back in against the waves. We'd go early in the morning and spend a lot of time out there. I think back now and wish I had a tape of our conversations out there. I don't remember what we talked about, and I suspect we didn't talk very much. It wasn't really about the talking but the being together and watching the boat rise and fall with the swells, reeling the line in and out, and replacing the bait as the sneaky salmon ate it off our hooks without our noticing. Of course, we caught some too, back in the days when people caught salmon in that bay. We'd catch them and they'd be all slippery and shiny, with their scales shimmering. Of course, then you'd have to bonk them on the head which was never nice but I didn't feel too bad about it, better a quick bonk than slow suffocation was my idea. One time, we had a terribly unsuccessful fishing trip and just gave up. We were outside our normal area and decided to turn our fishing trip into a scenic tour. We drove around and saw different parts of the shore than we normally saw. A whale surfaced oh, 100 yards maybe from us and spewed foul smelling breath. I remember be scared (that thing was probably under us!) and delighted (we saw a whale!) almost simultaneously and I remember Dad looking for the lifejackets, just in case.

I remember our walks to town. It was almost always easier to walk towards town because the wind was at your back. We'd wander into the same 3 stores (with changing names and merchandise). And then we'd head back, against the wind. It was never nice to walk back with the stingy sand and rain against your face.

I remember a crazy walk on the beach with Mom. There's a great photo somewhere. We headed out into an awful storm repleat with ponchos, one orange and one clear. We walked in the rain and the wind with the stormy seas and came home with pockets of sand dollars (we gave those things away to school friends for years). We were soaking wet too as I remember. The fire was always going during the winter at the coast (and the dryer was always running!).

So today, I remember the coast and the wonderful times we had there. There was always a cozy couch to curl up in and read a book (or the special reading nook that Dad made) and a fire and cocoa and my mom and dad and sister. As much as they drove me nuts during my teen years (because I was an annoyingly difficult teen girl more than anything else I'm sure) what I remember now is the time we spent together.

In a few days we'll be home and I cannot wait. I miss them all terribly, although I'm often so busy that I don't have time to notice. It's days like today, when I'm not rushing from place to place and dropping of sheer exhaustion that the memories flood back, triggered by a little wind.