Running Before the Storm

About lunch time yesterday, I turned on the inverter and logged on line yet again for some task or other. I also knew I should be working up a blog post for today.

It’s been a little harder to write for the blog lately, because the events that are holding my interest at the moment are either not for public consumption necessarily, or are just too dull to write about. Believe it or not, I do seek to entertain and/or edify in these essays.

When I pulled up email, I checked the Web site that I’ve set as my “landing” page, to automatically load along with the email browser. It may come as no surprise to you that it’s set to the marine weather forecast for our area.

I already knew that we expected a gale of 40-45 knots (almost 52 mph) by afternoon. The latest update showed that we should expect a 50 knot (57.5 mph) storm, with gusts to 60 knots (69 mph)! If the forecast holds, this will last all night, then settle down to a 40 knot gale tomorrow.

There are writing deadlines, and then there are writing deadlines!

This is kind of a big deal, as the wind generator continues to stick in or out of furl now and then. We will eventually have to mail it south to get it fixed, but we’ve been limping along until the longer daylight hours allow us more juice from our solar array. In the meantime, we try to avoid running the generator in higher winds. A gale as strong as predicted is the kind that will start the fully-braked turbine and furl it.

“No problem,” I thought, “I have some drafts stashed away for just such situations.” I figured I would pull one out and gussy it up in a hurry, schedule it, and get the heck off the power so I could shut down the generator.

I found a piece left over from those I wrote for another blog, and polished it. It even provided a good follow up to my last post on axes. As I finished it, an automatic fill-in feature popped up a phrase that gave me pause. Looking in my records, I discovered that I had already posted the essay a year ago!

By then it was almost 1:00 p.m., and the waves were beginning to smack the beach cliff, raising showers of foam high in the air. No pressure, now!

And, of course, this is the one thousandth post on this blog. There should be fireworks, speeches, a particularly good bottle of wine, perhaps flowers and kisses. Or, at least a particularly meaningful essay.

But alas, no. This one will not win any prizes, or attract new readers. It’s not the kind of thing likely to show up in a book. But, it’s a good example of the life we live. Furthermore, it’s time to do what I can, and run before the gale!