Wind, scientifically, is caused by natural atmospheric conditions. Barometric pressure gradients cause the air we breathe to rush from high pressure areas to low pressure areas. Scientific understanding doesn’t come close to explaining what I really know about the wind. Wind behavior is another mind-boggling phenomenon, as is my own: Often unpredictable and unexplainable. The difference, the wind has no conscience.
A windy day has a mind of its own. It is a free agent looking for the perfect route. In the desert the wind can run un-impeded for miles like a jack rabbit. It becomes a force that drives sand, tumbleweeds and anything else not tied down in front of it. Then the wind hits a mountain range, rises quickly, finds a break in the barrier and creates a wind tunnel for itself. Compressed by the tunnel the wind gains strength and speed bearing down on those who dare to occupy the space that the wind believes it owns. My wife and I lived and had a business in one of those spaces. The wind won. We vacated. Leaving our Arizona ranch we find ourselves in New York City.
The wind followed us. Windy days are the norm it seems. The weather forecast says northwest wind to 30 miles per hour. Again, the wind follows its own rules. The skyscrapers create a maze for the wind. It uses creative techniques to get through in amazing ways. I walk into the northwest on Broadway. The flags on the rooftops are standing straight out signaling a wind out of the northwest as predicted. Down here the wind is demonstrating its versatility and reversing its field. It is a tail wind for me pushing me into the Northwest. In fact, it seems the wind blows in all directions, a different direction each corner I round. I turn right and am hit in the face by an icy blast from the east. Any direction is possible down here in the canyons of frigid Manhattan.
It is mind-boggling how easily nature adapts to man-made structures.
Stan the Man
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