Calm before the storm

 

That's a streetlight, not the sun

I wake up from the beginnings of a nightmare, and remember that when I went to bed, there were dire warnings of a "weather bomb", a "cyclone bomb", according to American meteorologists - a storm not seen on the west coast in ages, if at all.  Talk of hurricane force winds, possibly the speeds of a Category Three.

I was in Halifax eleven years ago, when Hurricane Earl, a Category One hurricane, eased into being merely a tropical storm.  I decided then that if that was a Category One, I wouldn't care to experience anything stronger.

I head out at daybreak, when it's beginning to rain, but before I put up my umbrella, I whip out my phone to capture Chester Street and my beloved arch of ancient plane trees, which, like all other trees, have been severely depleted and weakened by the dryness and heat of the spring and summer this year.  What will this wind do to them?

Canadian meteorologists are being comforting, saying there's a good chance that the storm will ease as it reaches the northern end of Vancouver Island.  Vancouver Island is a very large and long island, but we, at the southern tip, can still be affected, if only in our internet.

At dinnertime, I'm returning home down Vancouver Street from downtown Victoria, walking through my hushed neighbourhood.  It's as if the world is holding its breath.