The Original Helicopter Parent...

Was a Maple Tree!  HA!  This seed was especially eye-catching -- red and orange and greenish on the wing tips. 

Now.  I would like to say a word about the weather... and the long-term weather (dare I say... climate?)  It is windy.  Today is is extremely windy, like, if you let go of your paper it's in the next county windy.  Lean into it when you walk windy.  The turbine looks like it's going to take off windy.

Yesterday was windy.  Tomorrow is predicted to be windy.  The thing is, it seems like, for the last 2 years (approximately), windy has been the norm.  A day like today isn't remarkable, it's the few days when it's not windy that are remarkable.  I don't remember this being the case before last year.  Am I wrong about that? 

The other thing is, I really don't like wind.  There's no time when it's redeeming.  In the winter it's brutal.  Even in the summer, we're not talking about a nice breeze that cools you down... this wind is strong enough to be bad even when it's hot.  You can't put anything down, it makes it very had to teach outside -- for the noise, for the fact that papers won't stay put... I really don't like these strong winds.  (My trainer actually took up kites -- like those big ones that require both arms -- because otherwise wind made everything worse -- running, biking, swimming, paddling, etc... but the kite was a thing that made all the windy days seem like not such a big negative.  I don't kite.  Still don't like wind.) 

Sorry to be a complainer.  But I had to get it out there.