the unlikely orange

brrrrrr.... i actually like winter, but every year there comes a time when i've simply had enough. and that time has come.  when i saw that the stupid groundhog was predicting 6 more weeks (might as well be months) of winter, i felt like i could punch that rotten rodent in his smug little snout.  i wanted to wring his whiskery little neck!  i wanted to turn him into groundhog gumbo and eat him while sitting outside on some new orleans patio, where i'm perspiring because of the temperature, and wearing flip flops so that my tanned little toes can breath in the warm air.  i was mad at that wannabe meteorologist mammal.  and then i saw this picture and i calmed down.  i mean, he is pretty cute, now that i get a better look at him.  i think we could be friends.  look at those adorable little ears!  i guess i could live with a few more weeks of ash-gray snow all over everything, if that precious little creature thinks its best.  ...

i believe in magic.  or, as the late great nick drake sang so hauntingly , "i was made to love magic." but not that sleight-of-hand variety, practiced by charlatans and shysters.  i mean, i enjoy a good trick as much as the next person, but i don't love magic tricks.  that's not magic.  those are illusions.  tricks and illusions are just that:  things that, by definition  are the opposite of real.  they distort and obstruct reality in order to make it seem like something else is real.  but nothing has really changed.  it is merely a trick. but i was made to love magic.  real magic.  where reality really does shift and change in ways that are sacramental in the purest sense of the word: mysterious. let me explain. yesterday it snowed.  again.  on the second-to-last day of march it snowed like the proverbial lion of march decided to eat the lamb and tear it to bits, with pieces of white wool flying around eve...

okay.  we get it.  we're all tired of winter. i have personally used this digital space to do more than my fair share of complaining about the weather this winter.  i was hoping it would hold me over until i could start complaining about the heat, but i've come to the limit of my complaining. i was made aware at several different moments today that there is still a month or so of winter remaining.  and i was thinking about how much i've complained already, and how ready i am for spring, for green, for the first unfolding flower to shock the frost out of me with its daring color. and then i realized again that spring without winter is like a gloriously delicious meal, moments after you've already eaten a gloriously delicious meal.  it has lost its value. and so i am resolving to appreciate these final ticks of winter, whether they be the lion that marches out of february, or a slow decrescendo into lighter evenings and warmer afternoons.  if we st...

we got a bit of snow this week, and since i had to shovel (again), i figured i might as well have fun doing it.  so i built a mountain.  this involves much more work than just shoveling snow, because i have to carry shovel-fulls of snow all the way from one end of the drive way to the other, making quite a spectacle of myself in the process.  no fewer than 5 neighbors stopped to gawk and/or question my sanity.  i tried to explain that i enjoyed the exercise, the crisp air, and the ability to construct something out of all this mess. they didn't understand. but jackson did.  he came out and "helped" me.  actually, cade tried to, but that lasted for about 2 shovels full.  jack just tossed snow onto the side of it, and ate about as much as he shoveled, but by the end of it, we've got a mountain that is at least 10 feet from bottom to top on the one side.  we'll still be playing on it in june. speaking of june, winter can go ahead and be...

this is my journal for today. I am finding that my soul, as well as my body is really desperate for warmer weather this year. here's hoping that tomorrow's 38 degree "heat wave" lifts the spirits a bit.  until then, i feel like some alpine animal bracing against the icy knify slices of the january wind.