Windy, Wistful, and West Virginian

Today is WINDY!!! I don't believe I've ever experienced such wind in my life. Doors must be opened with two hands, and then shut with all of your body weight to avoid being ripped from their hinges. Sitting in my office at work which is on the interior of the building, I can feel the entire structure shaking. Driving over a bridge today, a tumbleweed the size of a small tree came over the railing and was promptly obliterated by the hood of my car. Tumbleweeds are all over the place, the impressive thing about that was the wind carrying it 100 feet into the air to the top of the bridge.

We didn't realize how strong the wind was down here in the south of Utah County until our first night in our townhouse. Lying in bed, around 10:00, everything begins to shake, rumble, and whir, and it continues like that until around 6 in the morning. The thought has crossed my mind on several occassions that I may wake up twirling and twisting in a Wizard-of-Oz-esque situation. In bed, in the middle of some kind of windstorm, with the local witch peddling past me.

Or maybe I won't even wake up, seeing as I've grown accustomed to the jet engine of wind outside my window each night. Maybe I could avoid some of the terror that way.

We never get wind like that in West Virginia. I've always understood that it was because of the mountains. But here I am, at the foot of some of the largest mountains in the country, and I can hardly walk into church without my skirt blowing up around my face.

I think this is because the mountains are so large that they create a huge wind tunnel. All the wind that collects in the Canyon gets hurled out onto little Spanish Fork, and carried on from there. Does wind insurance exist? I'm sure we're going to need some new shingles after today. Or maybe they built our house with the wind in mind, seeing as how it's a permanent part of the area. Regardless, it's a little bit scary.

Speaking of West Virginia, it's so funny to hear the things that pop up now and again that are little pieces of the culture we grew up in. When people find out we're from WV, they invariably comment on our lack of an accent. It's safe to say we both escaped scott-free in that department, Justin especially, because he moved from Oklahoma, home of the southern accent.

Sometimes, however, little things come out, and we always try to call each other on it. Last night, for example, Justin was looking for his phone.

"Where's my phone at?"

The infamous additional and unnecessary preposition at the end of sentences. I love it.

And don't be impressed that I know what a preposition is. It's the one thing I remember from Mr. Pineda's 7th grade English class. We had to memorize a huge list of all the prepositions. It took weeks, and it's still tatooed in my mind.

About
Above
Across
After
Against
Along
Among
Around
At
Before
Beside
Beneath
Beyond
By
Down
...