The Month I Skipped

The blog just pretty much skipped the month of February. I'm sure that things were happening. Just nothing worth writing about. You see, I don't like repeating myself.

"Well, it snowed, and I had to go out with the shovels and the snowblower. And I'm still unemployed and looking. And it's still cold." You see what I mean? February around here is mostly a month lacking any kind of change.

March is a different story. We're already expecting a couple of days of rain, and although there might be more snow in the forecast, the temperature will be staying above freezing most of the days ahead. It's spring in New England, no doubt about it. And, "in the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to love," according to Lord Tennyson.

Well, I'm not a young man, and being married to Karen my thoughts turn to love on a daily basis year-round. My thoughts are turning to all the hours I'll be spending not shoveling snow, and the money I won't be spending on propane and extra gas to warm up the car.

My thoughts are turning to trying out my new camcorder (which isn't new, but something I picked on on eBay for less than I was able to sell my old 35mm still camera and lenses for), finally getting my computer back into shape with a new 320GB hard drive, and directing Almost, Maine at the Village players for the summer show.

I'm also thinking about construction projects, including Danny's room, ceilings in the basement, and back and front decks. Not that I'm exactly looking forward to doing those projects, but I am looking forward to getting them done.

And I'm looking forward to just being warm.

Tired of White

The ground is covered in white. The trees are covered in white. Our driveway is surrounded by mountains of white. And even inside our walls are still primed white, except for the one blackboard wall in the boys' room.

This picture, taken from our back window, does not really tell the tale, because there's no frame of reference. It's just another snowy scene in New England. But move to the front of the house and see the snow stored the either side of our cars, and it tells a different story. And all of this has hit in about a month.

We're actually lucky. Further south, the Eastern states have gotten much more snow. To the west there are areas that rarely get snow that have been hit hard, and they're not prepared for it. And of course Australia has had to deal with cyclones, and the Middle East with civil unrest, so things here in New Hampshire are by comparison quite calm.

Still, I could stand a little less white. It's even in my hair, and I don't mean the white—well, gray in my case—of old age. I'm talking about what accumulates in my hair when I'm blowing snow, because no matter where I'm standing, it seems to be downwind of the discharge chute.

Another storm is heading our way tonight, which will either be a fairly large snowstorm, or an insignificant wintry mix. The weather prognosticators can't make up their minds. My feeling is that I will be out tomorrow, before we try to go off anywhere, fighting with both shovel and snowblower.

And thinking of spring.