It was a wicked and wild wind

On a very smoky Labor Day, my family went on a walk at the International Peace Gardens in Glendale. I've lived in Utah my whole life, yet I never knew it was there. (Maybe because Glendale is so sketchy.) It's a charming park with various gardens and displays representing twenty-eight countries. Well, twenty-seven countries and one continent: China, United States, Greece, Norway, Sweden, England, Switzerland, Scotland, Holland, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Germany, Lebanon, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Philippines, Korea, Russia, Wales, Africa, Ireland, Canada, Vietnam, France, India, and Tonga. I recommend going there!

I was looking forward to the forecasted cooler weather for Tuesday and Wednesday. On Monday, warnings started to come in that the weather was going to be hazardously windy into Tuesday. My mom remarked that she expected the wind to be the worst we've ever seen, just because of the way this year has been going.

And she was right!

On Tuesday morning, I could hear the winds howling while I was in bed. (It was one of those nights where I didn't sleep well, but not because of the wind.) My mom teaches in the Salt Lake City School District, which was supposed to have its first day of classes on Tuesday. My mom went to school, even though the classes are entirely online. After she left, the power at our house went out sometime between 7 and 8 a.m. I wondered how I was going to participate in my Zoom class that afternoon, but the U cancelled all classes that day.

Since the power (and therefore the internet) was out, I couldn't do my homework. Even the data on my phone was spotty; it kept switching between LTE and 5G, never staying on one for long enough to be useful. And since the heater was out, I cozied up in a blanket and read chapters from the physical books I have for school. I do most of my readings online, but there were a few books I had to buy, so I read from them, even though they weren't the readings for this week.

The damage was comparatively small at our house. We had a couple of small scrub oaks crack.

 And pieces of our neighbors' fence blew into our yard.

 And the apple tree that hangs into our yard lost lots and lots of apples.

Our neighbors on either side of us had some large trees topple over, so I almost feel guilty that we were so unscathed. All throughout the neighborhood, trees had fallen over and lifted the sod out of the ground. We had a big wind day back in December 2011 (which I never blogged about!), but this certainly brought more damage.

My mom came home from school early, since the power was out there too. In the afternoon, my sister wanted us to come to her house because a large branch had fallen on her carport. By the time we got there, a neighbor had helped her to take it off the roof. Earlier this year, she paid to have that particular tree trimmed, but the neighbors wouldn't get their side trimmed. My sister was so glad she had it trimmed, or it might have been worse.

Our power came back on about 8 p.m., for which I was grateful.

But on Wednesday, my class was cancelled again because so many of my classmates still had no power. My grandparents in Centerville didn't have power either, nor did many stores in Centerville.

On Wednesday morning, I decided to run up North Canyon to assess the damage. I think someone had already been up the dirt road and cleared a lot of the trees, but there still were some.

But on the trail itself, there were many more trees that I had to go over, around, or under.

 Two miles up, I almost turned around as I had to cross over a large coniferous tree. But I wanted to see more of the damage, so I walked on top of the fallen branches.

 But at 2.3 miles, there was another large coniferous tree lying directly on the trail. Not merely across the trail, perpendicular to it, but actually on the trail lengthwise. I really didn't feel like trying to get past it, so I turned around. I'll wait for the Forest Service to clear it.

Would you believe this is a trail?

On Thursday, I decided to skip North Canyon and decided instead to run Wild Rose, which I haven't run since June (even though it's the nearest trail) because it's not good for social distancing. I think most of the fallen trees had been cleared there too. As I was running up, it felt like I had been stung on my ankle, through my sock. That happened to me a few years ago. I thought it was too coincidental that twice I would have an insect happen to sting me on my ankle through my sock while I was running—especially since there's only one other time I've been stung elsewhere. I figured it had to be something else: maybe a fiber in the sock stabbing me, or the sock pulling out one of my hairs. But three days later, my ankle is still red and sore. I don't know what it possibly could be besides an insect sting!

There were some painted rocks along the trail with inspirational quotes. I know they're done with good intentions, but I find them obnoxious. One of the rocks had the audacity to say, "Please don't take rocks." Um, please don't litter/paint rocks! Indeed, the next day, that particular rock had been taken away.

 Since Wild Rose is short and easy (even when I run from my house), I thought about going up the trail that goes above it on the south, up to a bench overlooking the valley. But a tree was blocking the trail, so I didn't.

This year, I was looking forward to the bumper crop from our neighbors' apple tree, and I was so relieved when they changed their mind about cutting it down. So it was sad to see so many apples on the ground. But I didn't want them to go to waste, so I picked up a lot of them so we could use. They're not good for eating anyway because they're wormy, so what difference does it make if they're wormy, bruised, and slightly underripe? I made apple crisp,

 and we bottled our own pie filling, which we have never done before. We still have lots of apples that we need to use up. Good thing apples have a long shelf life!

Here's hoping that this coming week is less exciting. I need to catch up on homework!