Friday, July 20

15 Wind Whines

Who has seen the wind?
by Christina Georgina Rossetti

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling
The wind is passing thro'

Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads
The wind is passing by.

I will tell you who has seen the wind; Nederlanders have seen the wind! I have seen the wind. The wind won't leave me alone. It can be considered a constant companion here and you must trust me when I tell you, it is no gentle thing. While I have whined this whine before, today I bring it up again because I have been out in it all morning. And well, because I can--It's my blog and I'll whine if I want to.

I suggest you get your glasses ready as the whine is about to be poured.

1. The wind turns my umbrella inside out. I don't think I can even count the number of umbrellas we have lost to wind origami. On an extremely windy day it is not at all uncommon to see myriad broken umbrellas discarded on the street. I suppose it's a good thing a new one only sets you back a couple of euros.

2. It is insanely hard to cycle in the wind. It feels as if someone is weighing you down with cement in your shoes. No matter how hard you push the pedals the wheels hardly make forward progress.

3. That makes your quads extremely tired,
4. and your heart rate slides past "fat burning" straight into "soon to be a corpse" zone.
5. You start dripping with sweat,
6. and the moisturizer you applied drops straight into your eyes,
7. and burns.

8. I don't know how it's possible for the wind to blow from earth's four corners simultaneously, but it does.

9. No matter which direction I am riding, I could swear that I am biking straight into the wind.

10. Straight on is wind. Turn left: wind. Turn right: still wind.

11. It's like the wind knows where I am going and readies itself to make me work just that much harder to get there.

12. I have gone kilometers out of my way before, just to find the literal path of least resistance.

13. One of these days I am going to pull a quick U-turn away from the zephyr and thwart the evil design just to see if I can outrun it.

14. Of course, then I will be going in the wrong direction entirely.

15. But when has that ever stopped me?



Speaking of The Wind:


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And now, on a breezier note. The winners for Scribbit's write-away contest are mentioned on her blog today. I was thrilled to see I was awarded honorable mention for this piece. Thanks go to Allison for her encouragement to submit it. She's always watching my back, that one. In fact, you could say she's the wind beneath my wings.

23 comments:

  1. lol. You just reminded me of Dublin. How I loved it and HATED cycling to work. lol

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  2. Exactly! I love my bike. Oh, how I love my bike. But I have NO AFFECTION for biking in the wind.

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  3. This was beautiful!

    My former roommate is married a wonderful man from the Netherlands. She had a civil ceremony there but the large wedding is on the 4th in California.

    Her name is Jenn, too!

    (I miss all the wonderful chocolates she used to bring back for me!)

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  4. ttm-
    Welkom!
    yup, I am quite fond of the chocolates here too!

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  5. Fun blog. I empathize re the wind. We live in the mouth of a canyon and I walk early morning in a full blown gale. Does wonders for my hair. And my poor veggies struggle to stay upright. Have to run lines from the tomato cages to anything solid. Nearly get decapitated when I forget to duck.

    Congrats on your competition win. I have another one on my blog that involves writing. It's called "Spotlight the Youth." Fabulous prizes.

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  6. When we ran our alpine refuge and lived atop a mountain in Italy, the wind would sometimes be so terrible that it felt like a wild thing, and howled like an animal. The Italians have a saying that the wind "blows your nerves". That's pretty perfect.

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  7. anne-
    Welcome to you! I am wondering which canyon you are near. That description is making me think SLC. Am I right?

    jennifer-
    Absolutely perfect description. That completely sums up how I feel about it!

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  8. Ever notice how the Dutch wind is only at your back when you forget to put your hair in a band and it can blow it straight into your face while you are trying to bike? Hate the wind. Bad. Have woken up during wind storms and tried to hide under the bed because I thought a tornado was coming. Nope, just straight line, hun'erd-mile-an-hour blows! Your whines are my whines. Funny ain't it!

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  9. I would have thought with all that cheese you eat you could have added No 16.....

    Cheers Mark

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  10. We have just enough wind here to fly a kite and make the wind chimes sing, most days. Now and then it's blustery, but certainly not like you have!

    Congratulations on the Write-Away Contest. Your submission was wonderful!

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  11. Wow! Congrats on the honorable mention! Frankly, I think you shoulda won. (No, I haven't read the winning one, it's just that... well, you know... you have my utmost devotion and loyalty. Plus, that post was really good.)

    And I love this post! And I bet that you are so fit and gorgeous thanks to that wind and how hard it makes you work.

    (Did I ever mention that my minivan requires no effort to drive in the wind? Yeah... )

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  12. Awww... I just noticed that you linked to me and called me a great blogger. Shucks. I don't know what to say. :D

    You too are awesome, dahling!

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  13. I hope the wind flies back to Kansas soon.

    This is an incredibly witty post without being long-winded at all (sorry, couldn't resist). ;-)

    I think I was incredibly lucky on my bike trip through the Netherlands, as I don't recall running into the wind at all.

    I wish I lived in a more bike-friendly area - I miss that about Europe!

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  14. Filling up my cheeks and getting ready to BLOW!!!

    Now how come everyone I suggest for writing contests get special accolades? And I don't?

    Sigh. Good thing I hang with the winners. I can at least bask in their glow.

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  15. I totally know what you mean about the lotion dripping into your eyes! I'm from Chicago "The Windy" city, but contrary to what a lot of people think it's named that because of politics and not actual wind.

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  16. LOL It's pretty windy here on some days. Often makes us wonder if our house made of bricks is going to get blown over by that big bad wolf the wind. LOL

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  17. Great post! I miss cycling, but NOT in the wind. Congrats on a well-deserved writing award!

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  18. it's funny how much the wind can effect your mood isn't it? IN Australia (at least on the East coast) we complain muchly about the westerly's - hot dry winds from the hot dry middle of Australia - everyone becomes very irritable and fractious!!

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  19. Thought I recognized that poem. My dd memorized several poems by Christina Rosetti this past year in homeschool (ie. The Caterpillar). Now I can tell her that "the wind" is being unkind to our bloggy friend Jenn in the Netherlands, lol.
    Blessings,
    ~Toni~

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  20. I think I would whine too!! If you feel the need to whine some more you can email me...I will listen.lol

    So do you have a good hairspray???

    Hugs,
    Connie

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  21. We don't have a bit of wind here in Florida now. I'm almost hoping for a hurricane; it's like a sauna out there. You're making me jealous.

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  22. when I lived in Scheveningen (Gevers Deynootweg, ...so backside of the Promenade) I once woke up from the wind. It was hauling very loudly in a big storm and was pretty impressive.

    After a while I realised my alarm clock should already have gone off, but it was silent....until I came closer to listen. It was already playing for half an hour but the sound of the wind made it totally silent.

    Wow...loud wind! I hurried up and got dressed and quickly went to the beach for a quick look at the storm before I left for work :). Fortunately I did not have to bike to work! I would have never arrived.

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