It's so windy at this time of year. The gusts are strong enough to push me off balance if I'm not expecting it, and my plants are looking battered. Tonight after work I tied down the tomato vine, huddled the smaller plants together next to the house, and watered everything the wind had dried out in two days. I remember being appalled last year, hoping I hadn't moved to a land of perpetual winds where no plants would thrive and no sunbathing would be possible. I think by mid-May everything calmed down.
The wind started on Saturday. I went out and gardened for as long as I could stand it, i.e., exactly as long as it took to transplant the rhododendron. Then I scampered back in and huddled on the sofa for a while, cursing the bad timing of the weather. It was so beautiful, I just hated not to be out in it, but 35 mile an hour winds take the thrill out of gardening, not to mention the dirt out of your spade as you lift it.
Saturday night I noticed my right ear was acting up. Not hurting, just acting up. Sunday was windless and beautiful and I spent the better part of the day out back transplanting seedlings and repotting plants. I was freezing, though. It wasn't warm, just sunny. Sunday night I could tell my ear wasn't processing sound correctly, but I ignored it.
Monday morning the wind picked up again and it really whistled around my head while I stood waiting for my train. By mid-morning my right ear heard a constant sound just like the ocean. And it throbbed, that sound, an everlasting thrum-thrum-thrum. After lunch I couldn't hear out of that ear except for odd, feedback-like screechs. But I didn't have a fever, and my ear didn't hurt at all so it obviously wasn't an ear infection.
However, I am now Lucy One Ear. My right ear is totally congested. Nothing else, no sinus passages or anything, just one blocked ear. This is the stupidest illness I've ever had. I think the wind gave me a cold in the ear. I didn't even think that was possible.
It's a long way to mid-May.
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