WindCon

NORAD has its Defence Condition Categories, or DEFCON. Here on our farm in North Central Illinois we have WINDCON, or wind condition categories. Just like the military, we have five.

• WINDCON 1 is the normal state of affairs. Except for about a half dozen days of the year there is always some kind of breeze out here.
• WINDCON 2 is a very common occurance also. This is the category of wind that makes the water in the toiletbowls suck in and out and whistles at the corners of the house. They are great days for hanging clothes outside.
• WINDCON 3 is fairly common in the Spring and Fall. These are days when you think twice about the morning walk. Going would be really easy, but you're not sure you could make it back! You have to hold on to your car door or lose it and use plenty of extra clothes pins. And something in the chimney chase (that runs through the wall right at the head of our bed) squeaks and creaks.
• WINDCON 4 happens several times every Spring and Fall. In this category, the wind gets a little scary. You avoid driving if you can, can't stand up to hang the clothes on the line and have to take all the porch plants inside if you want to keep them. The fiberglass bath tub creaks, and the whole house shudders along with everything in it (computer monitor, beds, pictures on walls...). We can count on first losing our satellite signal and then our electricity.
• WINDCON 5-I don't even want to know!

We have an anemometer to mount on the house so that we can see just how windy it does get, but we have to wait now until it isn't so windy that Chad will blow off the roof! According to the local airport (if you can call it that) gusts over 75mph aren't that uncommon.
I don't dust much in the Spring and Fall because it just doesn't pay. Even with the windows closed, the dust off the fields gets in. In town you see lots of trampolines in people's yards. Not out here. I don't think there would be a way to anchor them well enough! On the positive side, we don't have to rake leaves in the Fall. They just blow into the next county.
I tell you all of this because we have been at condition 3 and occasionally 4 since Sunday night. And I'm exhausted. And our Missions Conference starts tonight. And there is a dinner at church beforehand. And we have AWANA tonight. And our ensemble sings tonight. And we have two days of school to do today. And the house is getting away from me. And the only way I am going to make it to tomorrow is by God's Grace and possibly a considerable amount of caffine (could it be that God provided caffine as part of his grace to us? HMMM....).
More on wind tomorrow. See? I'm already assuming that the grace will come. What an awesome thing to be able to count on!

*originally posted on 3/15/06