Oregon Wind and Rain

The snow melted to slush and the rain began. That was last night. Now the winds are whipped up and scheduled to hit 100 mph gusts, to the west, on the coast.

Nothing new here. In fact, many Oregonians, at the mere mention of a big windstorm, take off for the coast to watch it come in. Ducks to the core, we are here. We love weather. If we didn't, we'd all move to a one season state.

Not that many of us don't miss the sun.

We start complaining come March usually, about the constant rain and gray. By July, we're often complaining about the heat.

Summer lately has moved. It comes later now than it used to. We've had cold cold May weather for a couple of years, that has drastically delayed successful garden starts.

I grew up near Oregon's south coast. Fog was a given there, come fall and often throughout the winter. Dense pea soup fog! Wind was a given in the summer.

As kids we played out on the ends of jetties, which are piles of rock way out into the sea, to shelter harbors for the boats coming and going. We liked to hold on while waves broke over us in big storms. Nowadays, that would be considered highly dangerous and child abuse. We had sense though, to hold on tight, or crouch low. We knew if we got washed off, the ocean's cold would kill us quickly. We weren't stupid. Lots of people are now, I'd have to guess, by all the laws out there and warnings needed about rogue waves and playing on logs in the surf.

But then, the coveted spot in my grandparents car, on rides with them, was the shelf created by the long slant of the back window. We liked to lay beneath that slanted rear window. That too is now illegal. My grandparents would be jailed if alive today for endangering us.

Today Oregon is Oregon. The rain is coming down in huge drops in slanted sheets, wind driven. The trees are swaying. I love it!

There's nothing like a good storm to clear the air.