Nature’s Fury

 

Image by Vinayak Varlikar

Bending over my lawn, scooping up all the daggers fallen from the dagger tree, I think to myself how lucky I am. My trees all seem okay after last night’s devastating wind and rainstorm. A few daggers on the lawn is nothing.

            “Hi, Carol!” my next-door neighbor calls out from her car window as she does a U-turn in front of my house.

            “Hey, K, how’s it going?”

            “That was quite a storm last night!” she exclaims, shaking her head.

            “Yeah, it was,” I agree. “I just have a few daggers to pick up this morning!”

            “Nature’s pruning!” she grins, rolling her car window up and finishing her turn.

            And, I think, okay, yes, maybe so. But really, after the raging winds last night, I would be more inclined to call it Nature’s Fury.

            I finish picking up the daggers, tossing them in the green bin, before heading up the street for my morning walk. The sky is blue with puffy clouds, a gentle cool breeze blows, a yellow-bellied bird flits in front of me.

Image by Wang Teck Heng

            You’d never know that the night before was ravaged by the winds until....

            I stop in front of my neighbor’s yard, two doors down from me. Oh...My...GOD! The beautiful tropical palm had been uprooted by the winds. It must have been at least 3 stories high. Swaying in the wind all of these years that I’ve lived here. A little bit of Hawaii for me in Richmond.

            Till today.

            Lying on the lawn now, its trunk severed from the bottom, it stops my heart. What a death for this beautiful tree! Not to mention that on its way down it smashed through my neighbor’s fancy silver Honda parked in the driveway. 1000s of dollars of damage there.

            Shit.

            I stand for a moment just staring. Wonder if I should take a picture. Why? To document Nature’s Fury? Like folks don’t know about it?

            I decide not to take the photo and continue on my morning Pandemic Pacing, pulling my mask up and over my nose as a lady with a little runty dog passes by on the other side of the street. She waves, shyly. I wave back, still shaken by the fallen palm.

            Why? It isn’t like it fell in my yard, on my car. I can’t imagine. I’d be devasted. But every time these wind storms strike, I worry about my huge avocado tree in my backyard. What if she fell? She’d smash my house. Or my neighbor’s house. And, yes, this neighbor has been hounding me to trim the Avo for years now. I resist. We even had a Tree Guy come out and assess the tree. He said the tree was healthy. Had been there about 60 years. He didn’t think it’d be a risk, but he couldn’t guarantee this.

            And so, I just worry while doing nothing. These storms are so violent. More so than I recollect. It’s like there’s no winter for months with temperatures in the 80s and then wham, the next week, it’s 39 degrees with gusts of 70 miles an hour, and buckets of rain. And we NEED the rain! The rainfall amounts are anemic in the Bay Area with most places registering only 20-30% of their average rainfall.

            Climate Crisis. It’s real. Thank goodness, at least, Biden is president and acknowledges the science of this. Unlike his predecessor. Who didn’t. So much time has been wasted. Is there even anyway for humans to reverse the crisis at this point?

            I don’t know. I hope so.

            I walk on up 31^st street, a light rain has begun to fall. I can’t help but smile now. Rain rain rain. I love love love it!

            I stick my tongue out to capture a few drops.

            For a few moments, I’m 5 years old again.

            And it feels so good.