riding the wind into Friday...

Wind River Canyon outside Thermopolis

Arrgh, this morning two things woke me up…my feet were buzzing to beat the band with my hands joining in the chorus and the second thing was our lovely Wyoming wind.   I just checked with weather underground, and it’s clocking some 45-50 mph gusts again. That usually signals some snow in the forecast. I’m hoping it’s blowing away some of that weird ice we have laying all over town right now.

We are having a bit of an odd winter this year.  Well, if you can call it a winter, that is. Been on the mild side.  Now, talk of the weather can lead to some real arguments around here. Seems that if you say it’s a good winter, you’ll find someone that will disagree and say we need “more moisture for spring” If you say it’s a winter lacking in moisture, these same folks will argue that you should be thankful we aren’t knee deep in drifts. I’ve learned to pretty much keep my mouth shut, as I don’t like to stir the contrarians.

Anyway, my neuropathy seems to be a serious weather predictor.  I really should get a job as a Wyoming weatherperson. I bet I’d call the weather a lot better than these yahoos on TV, that’s for sure. Wouldn’t we all like to have a job where we could be wrong 80% of the time and still keep our position? It is a tall order to be able to accurately predict what’s gonna happen around here, though.  With the mountains, sometimes things that are forecast to happen slam into the Rocky range and fall apart while other weather seems to gather energy in the mountains.

One of our first summers here, we were up at Meadowlark Lake, high up on the mountain, out in a little boat on the lake.  It was mid August and we were camping, had our little Sheltie, Heidi with us then.  We are all out in this little boat that had a a tiny outboard in it, just a little electric number.  It’s a beautiful lake and we were enjoying ourselves.  We were pretty far from shore when I heard a strange sound…..sounding like everyone in the cabins on the shore was popping popcorn. I mention this to Rob…”wow, that’s weird, sounds like everyone’s making popcorn” He looks off in the distance and grabs my arm and says “start rowing fast” and he puts on the dinky motor on the boat….it wasn’t popcorn, it was a hailstorm!!! By the time we got to shore, we were getting hit with what felt like boulders and the poor dog (who was a bit neurotic to begin with) was totally flipping out.  We made it into the backend of our pickup, under the shell, without having any blood drawn and sat it out for about 15 minutes while it sounded like someone was throwing rocks on the truck! And this was August!!

I have learned living here to always have boots, gloves, and jackets in any vehicle. You never know what the weather is going to do. Of course, I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been over in Thermopolis or somewhere else on the other side of the Bighorns and we are nice and warm, in shorts and sandals and then proceed to come back over the mtns and it’s snowing to beat the band and I’m in flip flops, needing to pee….hence the extra shoes.

But, back to my dumb hands and feet. They are buzzing this morning with that feeling sorta like you get when your feet fall asleep and they are waking back up.  The Cymbalta and Topomax I’m on is supposed to help with that, but sometimes it’s just too intense. Shaking them, like when something fell asleep, doesn’t help, either.  I’m wondering if the barometric pressure has something to do with it.

Probably doesn’t help that yesterday I went to take the trash out and Rob told me there was a bag of dog poo in a 5 gallon bucket in the garage that needed to go out, too. I went to grab it out of the bucket and it was frozen solid.  The whole bucket fell back down on my big toe, tons of frozen dog poo and all.  I’m now sporting a huge black and blue big toe with a nice purple line in the middle where the edge hit. I think I broke it but there’s nothing to be done for broken toes.  It is pulsing at this very moment.  Might have to wait til spring for the darn bucket to thaw enough to get the bag out now. Told you I was accident prone!

SO, today I will be sporting my hiking stick.  We have a Chamber of Commerce Coffee this morning so I actually have to get my rear in gear at sunrise.  Trying to think what clothes go well with the hiking stick (vanity, thy name is Lisa).  The Chamber coffee is always fun.  We do it once a month. It’s an opportunity to get together with other business folk in town early in the morning and find out what’s going on with everyone.  The town is all abuzz right now with the RMI convention we’ll be having here at the end of March. We have tour operators from all over the world coming to little ole Buffalo. Quite an honor. Anyway….now I’ve got myself thinking about what I’m gonna wear.  Remember I told you, when I don’t feel well, I dress better, so this morning is gonna take some thought and planning.

Well, I’m gonna take my buzzy hands and feet off to the closet now and see if I can’t find something presentable that will suffice in the Mother of All Winds today. It’s Friday, so I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend. Can’t wait to tell you all about Sunday nite’s Night at the Oscars extravaganza I’m going to….tried my dress on and it’s looks mmmmarvelous.  Even hired someone to do my hair and make-up as I NEVER wear make-up.  I promise to have pictures next week.

Now go out there and have a great weekend and be kind to strangers you meet, okay?