I might care more about this if I knowingly relied on wave powered turbines. But I don’t, or am at least unaware of it if I do. I hate the wind, it rarely brings anything good to a day. The wind does very strange things to people and their brains. Also animals.
I live in Melbourne, a hugely populated city and generally rather windy. This of course means that I’m faced with the prospect of sudden onset of craziness in my fellow citizens at any given moment of the day or night. You might say I’m faced with waves of odd stirrings, frankly I could live without it. No, shut up, I don’t dislike it so much that I want to move away from Melbourne.
Bursts of chaos in busy streets. Pedestrians losing directional and spatial awareness, being assaulted by falling autumn leaves, or the occasional loose rubbish. Being unable to remain calmly upright in the big gusts. And knowing that, depending on the direction of the wind, it could take a lot longer or no time at all to get where you need to be. This is human life quite literally at the mercy of an element. And it drives people a little insane! It’s actually a pretty interesting thing to observe.
We have no control over the wind. It’s driving for us, and it can be fierce in a tense situation. That’s road rage no one wants to witness. The wind distracts our senses. Drives us to thirst. Deafens us with howls and window shaking. Spits dust in our eyes. Attacks olfaction with any number of environmental sources. Cold wind hurts and hot wind sticks.
It decides how we look, it changes our hair and ruffles our clothes. It decides how we feel, stifled by heat, or frozen stiff. It dries us out and it chases us around corners, down alleys and up stairs. And we can’t escape it, we can’t bargain with it, we can do nothing to stop the wind achieving it’s will.
I try to avoid crowds in windy weather because I’m not the greatest at dealing with masses of people who subconsciously know the only steady thing happening to them is a heartbeat and even that’s out of their control. However, this coming weekend brings the first ever Oz Comic Con in Melbourne.
As a regular to Supanova events, saddened by the fact I get a feast of comic book shop love under one roof only once a year, I’m really excited to get a second hit this Saturday! And the weather is going to be crap-tacular! Luckily no gale is on the forecast, but 20-35 km/hr winds are enough to get a crowd half way to loony. That’s a glass half empty true, but it the full half that worries me.
Hey, come on now it’s not so bad. It’s entirely indoors, even the line up to get in will be behind the floor to ceiling windows of Jeff’s Shed. And besides, I like … nay,love … the patrons of such events. This is a wave of potential wind driven madness I’m looking forward to!
Wind, I can’t stop you creating all the waves of merciless torment you want – but I’m buying comics this weekend and you can’t stop me!
Lucky Numbers: 9, 16, 21, 26, 30, 33
16: dollars (each, give or take) for another couple of Unwritten or Transmetropolitan TPB’s
21: one dollar more that the Oz Comic Con ticket price
33: other dollars I’ll spend on stuff no one needs, but damn it’s cool how could I not need that!
How did you know that, fortune cookie? 