In a springtime mood

I was astonished to hear yesterday that in Saranac Lake the hard frost from this long winter still runs deep enough to keep the water pipes of some folks frozen even now. It feels pretty definitely like spring in Potsdam. Just in time, too; I could use another snow flurry like a stick in the eye.

I’m just starting to turn the corner, mood-wise, and just starting to turn my eye toward the aftermath, which doesn’t help much, mood-wise. For example, it seemed like a good choice to just fill the entire back porch with empty cardboard boxes over the winter, rather than to shovel out the recycling wheelie. So there’s a lot of box-cutter work for the weekend instead of my first choice–watching the daffodils bloom from a lawn chair.

And much as I enjoyed watching other folks plow the road and the driveway all winter long while I drank coffee by the window above the heat vent, now sand and salt and gravel and peeled sod are everywhere. Something to do after recycling–say this afternoon.

And that’s just the beginning of my “honey-do” list. Well, to be fair, I make my own list and have no one else to blame. A fourth fallen tree has joined its three buddies that I have been letting mulch down where they lay. Three more are standing dead. Chainsaw work has never been on my list, but finding and paying a tree guy is.

And falling ice broke two windows and three clapboards on the back porch. Not a repair job one would want to entrust to an English major whose main talent lies in poetry. Picking up fallen limbs and sticks and raking out beds is more my speed. And I’m an excellent wheelbarrow motor. Sunday, perhaps.

So, one more lovely weekend I will never get back again. Having all that stuff done will be an improvement, mood-wise, I have no doubt. And next weekend–weather willing–it’ll be strictly lawn chair, baby. Lawn chair and, oh yeah, bug dope.

Tags: listeningpost