Monday, March 19, 2012

wallpaper

I will never forget this insignificant fact about the house I lived in during my daughters’ formative years: it had ugly wallpaper in the kitchen. We always intended to redo the kitchen, but we couldn’t quite afford it in those early years and so we let it go. Within a few years, I forgot about the wallpaper. I spend most of my waking hours in that room, but I stopped noticing its hideous design.

Could it be that I’ve grown used to this weather, too?

No, not to the point that I take it for granted.

Monday is a tough work day – I’ve said this before. But not so tough that we could not take our breakfast outside. We watch the clouds roll in and, eventually, the rains come down.

Still, what a beautiful morning it is! The first daffodils, vincas, violets – all those.


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On campus, students treat the day as hot, beastly hot, shorts weather hot... even as the rain forces them to take their coffee break under cover.


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Later, much much later, after my last class, I return to the farmhouse. The sun is out again, mellow and muted now in the evening hours.


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I bring home take-out Chinese. We eat outside. The sun drops down, but it still feels summer-like. Our first dinner this year out on the porch.  You can do that now, on this final day of winter. Without a jacket, without a sweater even, if you’re an Ed.


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Summer in March. I’m quite used to it now. Tomorrow, we officially move into spring.