All I could think of, thanks to today's weather, was "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day". We had high-wind warnings overnight last night and all day today, as well as all kinds of traffic problems and power outages due to downed trees. The wind, including gusts up to 50 MPH, made life interesting for anyone who was walking OR driving. Pedestrians had to fight their way through strong wind gusts and every kind of airborne debris, particularly leaves. Drivers got to deal with fouled-up traffic signals, various utilities' repair trucks blocking traffic lanes, plus the visual distraction of the same flying debris that the pedestrians were dodging. I don't know how other drivers feel, but when I see a sizeable moving shape in my peripheral vision, which appears to be about to travel right in front of my moving car, my initial response is to feel somewhat startled... even if I *do* realize a moment later that what's heading across my path is merely a large cloud of dried leaves.

When I got to work, I noticed that the infamous kite, the one that'd been lodged in the tree near the parking lot for the past few weeks, appeared to be gone. It was definitely still there on Tuesday evening, when I noticed as I was leaving work that the silk was starting to get tattered. My guess is that it blew away some time during the night. I guess Charlie Brown's kite-eating tree wanted to go back to being an anonymous private citizen, which it couldn't do as long as there was a bright patch of color dangling in its branches.

The last time we had a windy day like this was my first day on this job assignment. That day, the power was disrupted to most (if not all) of Cherry Hill, including the building I work in. Guess what happened this morning? Yep... another blackout struck at about 10 AM. This time, I was trained on enough different job tasks that I was able to keep myself occupied for the 90 minutes or so that we had no electricity. So in the month I've had this assignment, I've experienced two power failures and one smoke-induced building evacuation. I swear, I'm NOT a jinx on this building, no matter how many people try to tell me otherwise. ;o)

LOL... and as I sit here writing about the power outage at work, I'm watching the Flyers/Canucks game on TV and THEY are having electrical issues in the Wachovia Center. One end of the ice has had some of the lights go out, so they are having the second intermission about five minutes early. The building management wants to figure out what's wrong and how to fix it, after which they'll tack the remaining portion of the second period onto the beginning of the third frame. At least no one can blame THAT power problem on me, 'cause I'm not there. It's still windy as all heck outside, though, so if the problems are weather-related, I won't be surprised.

Anyway, "Let's go, Flyers" -- I'm going back to watching the telecast. I hope that they can straighten out the light situation and resume the game.