Today was one of those events you really had to experience to believe.  It started shortly after 1 p.m.  I was sitting at my desk, working on the ever present paper work.  Out of nowhere a wind storm blew through my two open windows with enough intensity to catch my attention.  After living in a tropical rainforest for the last 25 years, we are well trained to react to sudden weather change.  Heavy winds almost always precede heavy rains.  

My initial reaction was to dash upstairs to unplug our electronic equipment.  Jim has linked everything together so we just have to pull one plug.  We really (really, really) cannot afford to have our lap top, printer, and WY-fi router all die at once.  

Before I got out of the office, I remembered we still had laundry hanging on the lines out back.  I quickly changed direction and flew out the back door and around the corner.  Standing below our second story bedroom window I began calling "Jim!  Jim!"  With the noise from the high winds, I could not tell if he heard me.  I dashed back around the corner and began pulling cloths and towels off the line, knowing that just moments remained before the rain would begin.  It begins first with big, lazy drops which accelerate to a torrential downpour in a scant minutes.  It never rains "cats and dogs" in Cameroon.  Here the rain falls in sheets!

Glancing skyward I saw black sky in the two directions I could see.  Another strong indicator that rain was on the way.  By this time, interior and exterior doors began banging shut.  I knew this would be disruptive for the numerous people at Shiloh on individual spiritual retreats, but there was no time to deal with that problem.  

It was about that time that I began to realize that things were flying around.  The strong winds picked up two hand held laundry brushes that live on the back of our outside laundry tubs, and tossed them around like they were feathers.  An empty laundry basket was blown off the back porch and rushed across to the back wall, where it finally was dropped into a drainage ditch.  There was a small stack of cardboard egg cartons on a table that were being picked up one by one and hurled across the back porch, where they were being lined up one next to the other and "wind glued" to the porch railing.  (Is "wind glued" even a word??  Well, it is now!)  

Though there was a certain amount of risk involved in being outside with various things being tossed about by the wind, I had to keep working.  Before I finished bringing everything inside and securing everything outside, Jim showed up.  My call had reached his ears.  He was engrossed in a project and had not noticed the wind.  But with my frantic call, he sprang into action.  His first thought was also protecting our electronic equipment.  Next he dashed to one of the second story balconies and began turning the plastic table upside down and stacking plastic chairs on top of it.  If we don't do this, the table can be smashed to pieces against the railing.  The chairs can easily fly over the railing to a crash landing below.  Jim's next order of business was to close all windows on the two sides of the house that were being hit hard by the heavy winds.  And then he joined me downstairs to finish securing everything.

The most amazing part was that the rains never came!  All that promise and no delivery.  Well, that is to say, they didn't come for two hours.  And when they finally did arrive, no wind accompanied them.  It's not to say that it never happens like this, but it's pretty unusual.

While the wind was whipping my hair every which way, and I was dashing around out in it, my mind turned to the famous Columbus Day Storm of 1962, in the Pacific Northwest.  Anyone who lived through it of a certain age or older, will never forget it.  That was quite a storm.  If you are interested, you can do a Google search.  That's exactly what I did after our windstorm had blown itself out, after the rains had come and gone, and after our electricity came back on.