Spring can’t come too soon

By Milt Gross

It looks like spring outside today.

Yup, I know spring is mud season. But it’s also spring. The weather gets warmer, and I dare to step outdoors.

I recall years ago driving in a long dirt driveway to go to church in a private home. And I recall driving back out through the mud. I think that Sunday spring came in about two hours.

I remember my first wife going off in the car to celebrate spring. I also remember our friend the mechanic phoning me to tell me she was stuck in the mud and he was pulling her car out.

The weatherman nowadays I think is out to get me or at least drive me to distraction. We went to the hospital today to check on some kind of thingamajib that showed up on my shoulder. The hospital part was okay.

But getting there went against what last night’s weather report said … depending on to which weather report I paid attention. I’ve noticed ones on the same TV station, perhaps 10 minutes apart since there is — thank goodness no real news — tend to vary slightly. That’s okay, I guess the weather can change in 10 minutes — and does, you’ve noticed if you’ve lived in Maine long enough.

Anyhow “they” predicted a warm day today and warmer tomorrow and warmer yet the next day.

But today was cold. Now I’ve been around awhile, but I can still tell the difference between “warm” and “cold” when our professional weather guy stands in front of all those maps and says those two words.

Tomorrow it’s supposed to be warmer than today. I can well believe that.

After all, we’re into March now, almost done with winter…thank God.

But while I was in the hospital’s emergency room, listening to the doctor tell me I’m fine — raising the question of why I was there in the first place— I got to thinking of all those places and paths we plan to visit.

Now that the doctor says I’m fine. And spring is coming.

I guess the cold — in Maine, we mean cold hard facts are that spring may sometime arrive in our land.

I think I remember from past years that spring eventually shows up for a few minutes. Plants rush to their leafiness, bugs get into circulation, we see critters in yonder woods such as deer and rabbits, and a few more things that mean spring.

Spring — those few days when, if we had time, we could get out and enjoy the great springy outdoors.

Without quite so much cold.

Milt Gross can be reached for corrections, harassment, or other purposes at  lesstraveledway@roadrunner.com.