In Focus

I’d say it got a little windy on Saturday. 

I was lying in bed watching TV when I heard a series of crashes and bangs. I instantly thought the cats had knocked something over. I walked into the hallway to turn on the light and was assaulted by winds and a heavy smoke smell. I flipped the light on and saw that my air conditioner had blown entirely out the window and crashed onto the hallway floor. 

I have crank-out windows, and one of the arms has always had issues. The corner piece that is attached to the wall busted. After struggling and being pelted by leaves, I closed the window and locked it. 

The air conditioner was upside down, and the wind had blown all the pictures off my wall. That has never happened before. I picked up the pictures and placed them on my desk. It was already late. The hall was now a mess, and I managed to shove the air conditioner out of the way. 

Then it dawned on me, if it’s windy enough to push my air conditioner out of my window, what’s it doing to my Halloween decorations—mainly the 12-foot skeleton and the seven-foot dog skeleton? 

I grabbed my phone and looked at the camera; the dog was down, and the skeleton—Skelly—was still hanging in there. I ran outside, picked the dog up, and laid him down for the rest of the night. I couldn’t do anything with Skelly. It’d take two people to help lay him down, and he had 180 pounds worth of sandbags on his base that I could not move by myself, nor could I climb a ladder to take his head off because it was too windy. Skelly was going to have to ride it out.

I flipped on my scanner and listened to the reports of smoke smell from everywhere, hearing there was a major blaze in North Dakota, and the winds were pushing the smoke our way. Trees were falling down left and right, blocking roads, and one landed on a car somewhere, according to the report. I had little hope of my Halloween decorations surviving the night.

I hoped that Skelly would be spared. And somehow, he was! He didn’t even lose an arm, which is typical when it’s windy. The dog is fine. The tombstones and smaller props were knocked over, but nothing major.

I cleaned up the yard and staked more props down. I was a little chilly and had to grab a jacket. The large eyes I had in the tree had been battered and broken. Oh well, it happens. At least nothing major broke.

And the smoke smell had greatly dissipated. 

Inside, I managed to flip the air conditioner over and plugged it in. It still worked. But I lacked the strength that day to lift it, so it’s just sitting in my hallway for now. 

But, wow, that was some wind!