"Oh wind, a blowing all day long; Oh wind, that sings so loud a song!"

It was a restless night last night. The wind, hungry and fierce, as it often is out here when the sun goes down, tore at the edges of the house and tried desperately to get in and devour us all. It pulled intensely at the siding, the nails creaking and groaning in protest, and when it couldn't get in that way, it tossed the garbage cans around in frustration. Its relentless battering kept me tossing and turning, which probably explains why I had all the blankets this morning and Husband was unconsciously hanging on to the miserly amount of covering I hadn't already pulled off of him.

It's still blowing hard this morning. When I opened the door for the cat to go out, the wind howled through the opening like a freight train. Lincoln, his fur standing straight up around his face and looking more like a tiny lion than ever, backed quickly away from the sudden attack of air, turned tail, and sought the peace of the rug in front of the fire, where he immediately began licking his fur into submission.

The power has gone out twice. That's unusual out here, despite frequent high winds. In The Big City, the power was always going out. It went out when it was windy, snowy, rainy, someone hit a power pole with their car, or a bird or squirrel (rare enough as the squirrels are out here) had gotten itself exploded. I think that the power people might have turned off power just for fun at times, giggling maniacally to themselves at the plant, wondering how many pages of incredibly important documents had just been lost because some computer user didn't save her files often enough.

Despite the wind, our Gabrielle is being honored by the mayor tonight. She was nominated by two teachers in one month to be recognized as an outstanding student at school, and the double nomination automatically means she gets to go to City Hall and hear people say nice things about her, after which she will have her picture taken with the mayor. The picture will be printed in the town paper. I'll see if I can scan in a copy.

Also going on tonight, Sian and Sophia will be attending New Beginnings at the church. New Beginnings is for the girls who are or are turning 12 this year and will enter the Young Women's program, and because Sophia just turned 12 in December, she will be one of the honorees. Of course, the program happens at exactly the same time as Gabrielle meets with the mayor, so there is a huge conflict. I was also supposed to speak at the New Beginnings program, but I haven't yet mastered the art of being in two places at once (sigh), so my part of the program has been removed. Sian is playing a piano accompaniment while the young women sing, so half the family will be at church and the other half will be at City Hall.

I have to run. Elannah just called me and asked if I could bring her reading journal to school. She forgot it this morning and it's lying on her shelf next to her bed. Little Gary and I will brave the wind to heroically restore the journal to Elannah, after which we will triumphantly run some errands.