weather event

January 13, 2002

Today's Reading
The Birds of Heaven: Travels with Cranes by Peter Matthiessen, Sleeping with Cats by Marge Piercy

This Year's Reading
2002 Book List

Photos

Calm at Sunset - Ocean Drive

Some sort of weather event is taking place all over New England but I'll be darned if I know what to call it. It's not a nor'easter because the wind is not from the northeast, though it's blowing as hard as any nor'easter I've ever seen. It's not a sou'wester I don't think, because though the wind is out of the southwest some of the time, it keeps changing and blowing straight out of the west or even the northwest at any given time. But blow it does.

We have breakfast at Cafe Zog because we are still in the Cafe Zog rut, but it's way too windy, not to mention cold, to eat outside. We get the last two bagels to go with our omelets. The woman in line behind us is plum out of luck when she tries to order a bagel. I shouldn't count my chickens before they hatch or my bagels before they make it to my table or whatever maxim is appropriate here. The waitress brings my omelet and informs me I got the last bagel and she dropped half of it but she has given me extra strawberries to replace it! Eek! Strawberries! I tell her I am allergic to strawberries so she picks them all off my plate. Then I suggest Nancy eat them so she plops them on Nancy's plate. Nancy cuts one of her bagel halves in half so we each get a "half-bagel and a half". And to think I was fantasizing about building a mini-Zog in my kitchen with the lucky bamboo plants I saw on sale at Bread and Circus. Just how lucky are bamboo plants anyway? We did get the last bagel and half ... but still...

We try to find brant at Colt State Park but I can't make out what the birds bouncing between these giant waves might be. The wind is blowing so hard I can hardly open the car door. We think, gee if the waves are this big on Narragansett Bay wouldn't it be fun to see how big there are on the ocean side? Let's go to Newport! So dodging trash cans and Christmas trees blowing into the road we drive to Newport. Aside from changing lanes suddenly on the Mt. Hope Bridge and nearly getting hit by a flying Christmas tree, it's kind of fun. The waves on the ocean, however, are not nearly as big as on the bay. Something to do with the weird wind direction.

We watch a spectacular sunset from Ocean Drive and have dinner in a weird little Chinese restaurant with no heat, then head back up the bay. We find out from the TV that this is a major winter storm. That's funny because there's no snow in Rhode Island. I look at the weather report in disbelief and head on home.

Uh, there's definite snow up here and they didn't shovel my walk and steps because apparently the gate blew shut in the wind. I have never figured out why the snow shovelers, who are paid by the condo association, can't open the darn gate. But they can't. And if I don't leave it open, they don't shovel. I had better remember to tie it open the next time we have wind like this.