observations from this morning's commute to work

It is a bright and sunny day today. The winds are very strong, so strong that they blew away all the clouds, except for a very few dense survivors, scrubbed into strange bright shapes by the wind and hanging on for their dear little fluffy lives.

It's not very warm, even with the sun. The wind is cold and pierces through whatever you wear. It's dry and crisp. At one point, crossing the street, I got hit by a gust of wind so strong it blew me sideways. Miniscule bullets of dust pelted my face. It hurt.

While I am really bummed that it is already cold and it's only just September 4, I do really like windy days. When the wind is chill and very gusty like this, I feel so absolutely alive and a little wild. It's like the wind wants to carry me with it to foreign, pagan places. I want to scream and run with my arms wide open and chase the leaves that scutter across the ground. Wind brings out the wild child in me, the one that dances around fires and howls and grins and wears capes that billow on the breeze. I want to lie under a tree and just listen to what the leaves tell me as they flutter and twist. When I was in college I worked a summer in Yosemite National Park, and I did that alot.... just lie under the trees and listen to them. It's a sound that never fails to thrill me. Of any religions in this world, I am probably closest to Pagan. That sense of freedom and wildness that comes with the wind is so primal in me....it's very powerful.

But the wind was damned cold as I waited for the train. All of us waiting wedged ourselves into the sunny bit of the platform where it was warmer.

At the station I noticed that "80's lady"' is back on my morning routine. She's this lady I noticed last winter who wears clothes from the 70's and 80's. But not in a trendy, 'aren't I cool and retro' way. She's in her mid 50's and I can just tell that in the 70's and 80's she had alot of money and whatever she bought was the best of what was available. So her jacket, while 80's and suede with very big shoulders and an Alexis Carrington swing to it, is very high quality and obviously expensive for its time. Ditto her bag (high quality leather) and her shoes (70's, Brazilian brown leather, that kind that changes color over time?)

I just wonder....what happened that she used to have all this money and now doesn't? Did she just give up on shopping and now wears her out of date things to death? Does she think "Hey it was good enough then and it's the best so why bother with new"? Or does she just LIKE that style and doesn't want to bother with what's around now? The way fashion is going, in another season, maybe two, she will be back in the height of fashion again. Her coat swayed in the wind. It has a nice lining.

I nearly got blown back into the train as I stepped off it.

My office at work faces another building, but if I look out toward the other side of our building, I can see the trees bending almost in half fighting the wind. The leaves have not yet started turning color, I give it another two weeks. I wish my office faced the trees and not the solid, never moving cold grey and brick offices across the parking lot. Ah well, at least I get a patch of blue sky and over there on the left is a cloud that has been sheared into a pleasing smooth tablet by the strong winds.

I want to be in the woods with the wind. Cold, ruddy cheeked, alive and howling.