Everyone knows it's Windy

Look how early it is and I'm blogging. How did the planets align to make that happen?

Well, I'll tell ya, it was just craziness in our part of the world, and after I brilliantly stayed up until 2:30 this morning watching that movie then reading for another hour, DFW fell apart. Was up again from 3:30 until about 4:15 with tornado warning-ness. The -ness because as excited as our tv stations get about bad weather, it is often highly confusing who exactly is under a warning, especially since the sirens in our area have the lovely reputation of malfunctioning.

Some of our neighbors were hidden in closets and laundry rooms, others were sound asleep without a care in the world (which would have been the correct choice, in retrospect). We, in our household, were somewhere in the middle. I was awake watching the tv after dragging the girls downstairs to sleep on the couches, until or unless it was deemed appropriate to move to an interior space and put pillows over our heads. Todd was asleep with a pillow over his head because tornadoes and tornado warnings don't phase him. Not one bit. I think Mom was watching her tv, too.

At any rate, in our neighborhood we lost a few leaves off our trees, and that was the extent of our excitement other than lack of sleep. (Thank goodness. Many others, unfortunately, were not so lucky.)

Moving on to swim team tryouts, which were of course from 6:45 to 7:45 this morning, was no less exciting. After much confusion and trauma involving identifying the correct date and obtaining the proper paperwork from our family doctor, Emilie arrived at her big event WITHOUT it. So, yeah, at 6:15 this morning, I was making the 30-minute trip down to the pool with the paper. We were carpooling, and I was on the pick-up end, so I just stayed until time to take the girls to school at 8.

Needless to say, I slept today. Not enough, though, so I'll be hitting my z's much earlier tonight.

And the subsequent topic for today's beauties?

Wind.

At 4 a.m., the wind was not beautiful. Not at all. In fact, it was downright ugly. But at 4 p.m., on yet another chauffeur run, it was strangely fascinating. We had an absolutely gorgeous, sunny day, about 90 degrees and blue skies. And here's what I found in the field behind Emilie's school while I waited an hour for her to come out after her call that she'd be ready in "ten minutes." (Sigh.)

1) A field of plump white clover, so dense that when the wind swept across, it looked like a huge crowd of tiny spectators, wearing white gloves and applauding in the air.

2) The thick stand of trees at the back of the field dipped and swayed in unison, like a gospel choir.

3) Single trees in close-up view blurred like impressionistic paintings.

4) An 8th grader exited the school, and every single paper in her binder flew up, out, and away. She and her friends screamed hysterically and chased down as many as they could. It was emergency teamwork, and surprisingly joyful. They laughed their heads off the whole time, and each time they repeated the story to newly arrived friends over the next ten minutes, it got bigger and better.

5) This is more bizarre than beautiful, but still worth mentioning. The lovely purple wisteria vines? Today, after the storm, not a single blossom remained. Forgotten again until next spring. The lesson here? Beauty is fleeting! (I didn't write that.) Enjoy it while you can.

Who's tripping down the streets of the city

Smilin' at everybody she sees?

Who's reachin' out to capture a moment?

Everyone knows it's Windy

("Windy"/the Association)