11 March 2010

The First Day of Spring




Although it was only March 10, today was the first day of Spring for me. I sat outside on the deck, sunglasses on, Yankee hat on, rehabbing my knee, reading in the sun, and watching the birds come in to the new feeder eight feet away. I swatted away a yellowjacket a couple of times and missed a few others. Some sort of centipede bug crawled along the rail of the deck onto my hand. The sun was glorious and so was the day. It was about 65 degrees. I live in Western New York and 65 degrees is good for any time of the year but especially above average for the first half of March.

I blame Spring for the academic flameout during my first attempt at a college degree. I went to a community college and on a day like this I would be at Mendon Ponds Park, drinking Busch beer from the trunk that still had a hint of coolness. After today I am officially Spring crazy. I start getting up earlier and earlier, anxious for the day to start. This might be my favorite time of the year. It's definitely the time that I feel the most energetic. Deep into summer it's easy to get lacksadaisical, sleeping til 9 or noon sometimes, especially if you've been like Springsteen and running the backstreets all night. But this time of year is alive and everything is restless and starting to come out. Water trickles and feeds the pond. Birds pop and flutter along the ground. The creek in Honeoye Falls gushes with the brown water of all the melted snow from here to Honeoye Lake. I don't see any buds on the trees yet but I know they're coming.

It doesn't matter if we get more snow or not. I'm sure we will. Some people will escape to see the cherry trees in Washington D.C. bloom and others will come back tan from a week in Florida, and that's fine. We'll get cold, wet days when you just can't get warm, and that's fine too. But my friend Melissa posted a note the other day and the refrain was familiar: I will not get emotionally attached to warm weather, I will not get emotionally attached to warm weather, I will not get emotionally attached to warm weather...You know if you have to tell yourself that, then it's too late.

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