Wind Storm

We are having another windstorm today. It is covering the whole state of New Mexico, and is a little scarey. We had a bad one a few weeks ago and this is just as bad. It makes me wonder if we are going into another 'dust bowl' like my parents and grandparents talked about happened in the 1920's and 1930's. As I sit here I can hear the winding howling like a monster trying to consume the land and everything on it. I hear the metal roof on the ponies shelter bouncing, the trash cans have been knocked over by the wind, as have my yard cart, and a bench I sit on when outside. I hear the squeal of the metal gates as the wind pushes on them first one way and then the other way. We have the 10 foot long front gate wrapped with a heavy chain and locked to keep the wind from pushing it open. That gate seems to get the wind the worse as it has come open a few times. I just hope the gates to the horse pens don't come open. I have only small latches on them instead of heavy chains and locks. The horses don't want to stay in their shelters because, apparently, it is more scarey to them in the shelters than out. They stand with their eyes closed and their butts to the wind trying to wait it out. I feel so sorry for them. Most of the time their 3-sided shelters are enough. I can't see the Sandia Mountians that usually make such a nice view for us from the back porch. In fact it is difficult to see my neighbors home. The power pole between my house and theirs keeps trimbling in the wind. It has a crack in it from the top to the bottom. We have called the electric company but they say it is safe. I guess when it falls and hits a house, or truck, or even worse one of our propane tanks (the pole is between our propane tank and theirs) then the electric company might say that there was a problem. I see the wind whipping the electric lines back and forth between the power poles. I hope they don't come down. When I first moved to Albuquerque in 1973 we never had wind storms like this. You could count on a rain shower almost every afternoon for a few minutes from late spring until late summer. When we moved to Rio Rancho in 1983 there was usually more snow in Feb. and March than any other month. I remember a snow storm in May on Mothers Day in about 1984. By the next day the snow had melted off the roses and they were fine. But then we had moisture frequently. Up until about 1995 we planned to spent most weekends from Jan. to April in the mountains snowmobiling. Now I have two snowmobiles sitting in the yard that haven't been started for several years. In fact one of the reasons we moved to where we are now is that we had been able to bring the snowmobiles out here frequently to ride them on 10 to 18 inch snows several times each winter. We had antipated riding out the front gate and across a snow covered mesa on our snowmobiles. Now we just watch the wind whip sand up onto everything with no hint of moisture in the air.