Think where man’s glory most begins and ends. And say my glory was I had such friends. – William Butler Yeats

We lost Windy.

Our area suffered a freak autumn snowstorm the weekend of October 29. Because leaves were still on trees, snow clung to them and the weight took down many limbs, whole trees and power lines. Hundreds of thousands were without power for days.

I worried about Windy, but I still had hope.

And yet when I checked her tree on Tuesday, when all the leaves were down, she was nowhere to be found.

Not a speck. I looked. Believe me, I looked.

Her limb is still intact, though another one below snapped and had to be sawed off by maintenance. Here is how her tree looks now. After the storm, the tree splayed at the top and hasn’t bounced back. It may never.

Windys Tree

When I think back to how our friendship with Windy began, I never imagined she would become so popular at The Junk Drawer.

For years, people would send me pictures of other “Windys’’ they spotted in their daily routines and I always got a kick out of that.

The birthday parties I held for her were great excuses to have cake, but they were also opportunities to tell Windy’s story to people who hadn’t heard it before. The looks I got in return were priceless.

And yes, a lot of people questioned my sanity. But a lot didn’t. Over the years, people would randomly ask me about her. It cracked me up to know she was on their minds and that they knew her enough to ask by name.

A celebrity in the making, she even got her 15 minutes of fame. Most people aren’t so lucky.

We all need a little fun in our lives, a little crazy. And Windy gave us that.

Windy had friends, all of us. We cared about her, checked on her, wondered how she was doin’ up there.

We wanted her to come down, to be safe with me.

We wanted her to live forever, but the fury of nature put an end to that.

I want to thank Windy for all she’s done for me, my blog and my readers.

She got us to “embrace the crazy” and see that even an ordinary, lifeless piece of plastic has the power to bring joy to others.

Think about that. Amazing, right?

So when you pour your favorite beverage today, toast to Windy, will ya? It’ll be our last little act of “collective insanity” and I think that would send Windy’s heart aflutter.

Wherever she is.

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