Tag Archives: Winter

Blue Winds

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BlueWind7385

It’s November going on December and that’s when the blue winds come. We get them other times of the year too especially in late January when winter is at its strongest, but the first of them come about now.

Winter is beginning to find its foothold in the big mountains here in Colorado, especially up in Rocky Mountain National Park. Some snow has fallen up on the high country already, even falling down onto the foothills at the base of these high places, and it is starting to slowly cover the mountain tops. The highest ridges have snow building behind them and it doesn’t take much for the blue winds to start.

The winds race through the valleys and over the ridges, gathering force, quickly picking up speed and lifting and gathering the snow that hasn’t had a chance to tightly grip the stone it is resting on. When it does, the weaker winter light, which is close to being at its lowest angle now, shines through the misty snow clouds that form in a cold metallic way and turns everything nearby into a deep indigo blue.

These are the Blue Winds. It is a cold beauty to be sure and one that may take some getting used to. But every day is a miracle, even when it seems things can’t get any darker there is always something outside yourself to see and appreciate and take solace in. Even if it’s the cold dark beauty of the Blue Winds.

Hold On Just A Minute Here

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ReconsiderFall0855

I’ve been thinking. Maybe we’ve been pushing this Fall stuff a little too hard. I mean talking about it and all, looking around to see if the trees are turning yet, thinking about making a big pot of chili. I mean things happen fast enough as it is, which is okay for some things, some things you want to happen fast, like right now fast. But for things like Fall that have a drastic effect on your quality of life I think you need to slow it the hell down a notch. I mean you do know what happens after Fall, don’t you? I mean like immediately after Fall. Yes, that’s right, the ‘W’ word which brings up the ‘S’ word which stands for snow and that rhymes with NO!, right here in River City.

Maybe its just me but didn’t it take longer to switch from summer to fall a while ago. I seem to remember noticing, like, one tree that had a couple of different colored leaves on it around the middle of September. And it would still be hot as Dutch love during the day but at night when you were going to the game down at the high school, or the CYO dance on Friday night, it would be cool but not freezing. You’d  walk a girl home with your jacket unzipped to show her how the weather barely affected you, which made you really cool. Or at least you thought it did. And when the leaves finally did turn and start to fall it took like three weekends to rake them all up. But it was neat walking downtown to the movies because the sidewalks would all be covered with every single color leaves turned, and they’d make that kind of swishing-crunchy noise against your shoes as you walked through them. That seemed like a normal fall to me.

 Now if you even say the word out loud, “Fall”, or even say something like “Man, it was cold this morning I think summer’s over ” Bam! it’s fall and there’s no leaves left on the trees because they turned in like twenty minutes, then the wind blew them off the trees and it was snowing. I hate that.

Case in point. The image above was taken back in 2008 up at Sand Creek, Colorado, near the Wyoming border. I had friends up there that liked Fall but they were cool about it so it didn’t get in the way. But that didn’t change the fact that Sand Creek is a place notorious for Fall. First its farther north than here, and it’s higher in elevation than here and it’s kind of isolated, in short  a perfect place to have a short quick, brutal Fall. But check out those leaves. Do you notice the amount of green still left in them? See how the leaves are gradually turning to yellow. They’re in no rush. They’re taking their time. That’s only 6 years ago. You still had time to get adjusted to the idea that it was going to be cold and stuff. You were better prepared mentally.

Now it is totally different. Now some careless door-knob will walk outside and just blurt out “Hey it’s cold out. Must be getting Fall” and there you go. Before you can say “Where’s my down coat” or “I hope the car starts.” you are ankle-deep in snow and wondering where the hell summer went. It was here a minute ago.

So I’m going to stop talking about it so much. In fact I’m going to look at every leaf that’s turning color for at least ten minutes each just to make Fall last longer. I’m going to walk around with my jacket unzipped. Hell, I might even go to a CYO dance, if I can find one. This year I’m going to have the longest fall I can. If you were smart and I think you are, you might do the same thing too. And if you locate a CYO dance give me a call.

Monument Valley Morning

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MonValMorning4226
Monument Valley              Click to enlarge

For some of you it still feels like Winter, I know it and I feel your pain, but believe it or not there are places in our world, right now, where the sun is shining and you can go outside without long underwear, excuse me, they call it base layers now, and not freeze your fuon buey bueys off.

In fact the other day as I was lying on the couch in a carbohydrate-induced coma, I felt something warm and comfortable slide across my face, no it wasn’t the dog’s tongue, I’m out of dogs at the present, it was sunshine. Yes, sunshine. Well I was surprised I can tell you. I immediately jumped up, well, to be more accurate, rolled off the couch and crawled to the window to see if it was real.

It was and what’s more the snow that had been steadily climbing up the side of the house covering the windows and burying my car, had disappeared. You could see the ground. But the biggest miracle was that the lucky Aspen tree, the one we call Dead Tree Walking, the one that is still alive after all the attempts were made by the elements to kill it, had buds on it. Big ones too, like they were going to open tomorrow kind of big. How’s that for giving one hope?

I could feel the blood starting to move slowly and sluggishly around in my body, pressing up against the various valves in my veins, saying “open up, open up we need to get to the brain, we’re about to lose this guy!” and they did, those little valves, they opened and soon the flood gates were down and I was walking and talking and going outside and looking around, staring at the sun like some peyote-crazed Aztec. I marveled at the fact that white was not the dominant color anymore, that I hadn’t been trans-located to some black & white movie, set in Croatia or somewhere worse, like 1950’s Czechoslovakia, you know, all coal-fired steam trains, cold dark fog, grey with soot everywhere, all filmed 20 minutes after the sun went down.

As the sun warmed my head little thoughts started to dart around in my mind like those minnows you see at the edge of the shore, you remember, the ones that flit from one shadow to another at the speed of light, not staying in the sunshine for one moment longer than they need to, lest something bigger make a meal of them. Then bigger thoughts arrived, then bigger yet, edging into my imagination like the berthing of the Queen Mary. Huge ponderous thoughts like I used to have before Winter caught me and turned me into a couch dwelling, TV watching, soulless lump, nearly one of the undead but not quite.

One of the biggest thoughts coming up out of the murky depths, brought to the surface by the slow turning of the great props as the Queen of the Sea was slowly  brought dockside was ” I could go somewhere.”  yeah seems obvious to you I bet, but it was a revelation to me. I thought I was going to die on that couch. Never seeing the beauties of the world again. Alone, staring at the ice encrusted windows as the world turned slowly grey then black. So you can see how a guy would suddenly be GobSmacked, his life returned to him in an instant, full of hope and joy with the idea that there was a future.

Where to go though. I quickly ran to my computer and began feverishly going through the images I had placed in the folder labeled, “Places I want to go again if I live through this Winter” and up popped this image of one of my favorite places in the universe, Monument valley. It is early morning, the sun just rising high enough to clear the buttes, lighting my way to a secret place deep in the desert where no one has ever taken a picture before. The wind making a keening sound as it rounded the spires and towers as it finishes writing its name in the sand….. Listen I’d write more but I have to go pack the car. I got to go before Winter changes its mind.