Wind

I walked up the street to the shopping district of Silver Spring at lunchtime today.  One of the taller buildings flies a large flag on top.  The day was breezy - at ground level the air swirled around, blowing scattered leaves around.  But up at building top level, the air flow was strong and fast.  The flag rippled out from its pole as if straining to get free and fly with the wind.

When I lived in Alaska, I sometimes walked across the bridge between Juneau and Douglas Island.  At the edges of the bridge, the wind might be barely noticeable.  But out on the bridge, over Gastineau Channel, it would be streaming past, then die quickly down as I reached the other side.

I'm fascinated by the way that air, which we move through so effortlessly when it is still that we don't even feel its presence, can exert such incredible force when it is flowing fast.

Down the street a little ways, where the wind funnels between two tall buildings, a couple of men were playing - stretching out their arms and leaning into the support of the rushing air.  I remember doing that as a kid, in the field behind the house in Kansas, on a particularly windy day more than 50 years ago.