smaug and wind

once in may or early june about eleven years ago, greg and i drove through the night to theodore roosevelt national park in north dakota.  we arrived early in the morning, when the buffalo were still walking casually around the tents of sleeping campers.  we set up our tent and slept until the wind pushed out the cold morning air, bent the poles of our borrowed tent, and set the heat of the day upon us.  ever since that morning, i've thought of wind having a purpose-- to sweep out one kind of weather to bring in another.  so i didn't know at first what to think of the wind this morning.  it's cold today, it was cold yesterday, and it's forecast to be cold for the foreseeable future.  so why the crazy wind?  perhaps the windiest day we've experienced in denmark-- which is saying a lot for this notoriously windy country.  both greg and i were scooted off the bike paths by the wind to give you an example of its determination today.  but apparently it's not all for nothing, as i originally thought.  it's bringing a snowstorm.  the first snowstorm we've noticed the danes discussing ahead of time.  weather doesn't seem to be the all-encompassing obsession here as it is in the u.s. (of course it's possible we're just not hearing the talk because we're not understanding it), so the fact that this snowstorm has been talked about, anticipated out loud, feels significant.

in class today-- the first i've been to in well over a week (nearly two)-- henry's teacher called to tell me he wasn't completely over his stomach flu and we would have to pick him up.  then another call, this from the realtor to find out the specifics on our appliances and utility bills as requested from interested people at the open house.  then another call from greg, who'd volunteered to pick henry up so i could take a math exam, to tell me he didn't have the house key.  i suggested he go pick it up from the realtor who wanted to talk to us anyway.  so that's what he did.  he got the key, got the guys, and even picked up some groceries.  after all that and a quick math test, i wasn't far behind them, with the wind slowing both of us down, but him more with a full burley whose left tire needs patching.  we got henry down for a nap and read 'the hobbit' with william (where we have finally met smaug the flying, fire-breathing dragon).  greg started dinner but soon began feeling sick himself.  and when that happens, of course, the healthy of the two adults in the house begins anticipating all that will need to be done should the other go suddenly out of commission for the next day or two, and like the people of lake town in the hobbit, starts pouring water over anything that might burn down when smaug comes to blow fire on the place.  it never seemed to materialize thankfully, though the snowstorm is still on its way and henry very well may not be going to school tomorrow, which means either will i, but i will end this post now so i can do my homework anyway, just in case.