March, marching forward

Anyone remember how I gave March a bad rap, oh, back in the Fall? I threw out insults as "the worst month ever" with "too much of winter" and "too little of spring?" Well, I'm changing my mind. It takes a pandemic for you to really dig into the beauty of change. During lockdowns, and endless waits for a vaccine, any vaccine, 50% effective-would-be-so-great vaccine, during family separations and birthday parties with no "party" in it, Zoom Thanksgivings and curbside pickups, and no school, no friends, no idea as to when things would change for the better, the grind seemed without end. And now along comes March and it is so clear that no matter what the weather today, we are inching toward spring. Can you imagine? We are inching toward spring!! (And by the way, winter wasn't so awful for us here, in south central Wisconsin either!) 

The day starts early. Ed has a work call, I have a meet up with a friend. I hurry with the chores. Feed the cats: we are all a bouncy, sprightly lot!

And the cheepers. Hi, girls! How's life for you these days? I know, right? Spring is in the air!

Before I take off, Ed and I munch on some fruits and discuss sexism and whether it exists in innocuous comments that unintentionally disparage the successes of girls. Yeah, I often bring up hefty topics before I even have my cup of coffee!

And now comes my reentry into a social event -- one of my most important ones! Coffee with a good friend. In a coffee shop. Inside. She'd asked if I was okay with that and I said yes, so long as there's some social distancing between tables. We go to one place and I said no, not good enough. Too tight. (Besides, it smelled of burnt bacon.) So we go to another and it's perfect! (Except that the table was positioned right below of Russia and N.Korea. We switched tables! Well, because of the squinty overload of sunshine rather than map details!)

It was heavenly to be drinking a cappuccino indoors again.

And in the afternoon, Ed and I go for a walk because the sun is so promising and even the nip in the air does not distract from the slow evolution of seasonal activity. Snow's melting and guess what? The first cranes have appeared. I hear their warble and sure enough: you can see them blending into the wetlands.

Do you think they regret coming when it's still so cold? (It really is still very nippy.)

They're well protected.

How do you know? They head south to avoid the cold!

They head to Florida because they like Florida. They come back because they're fine with the cold.

I don't know about cranes, but I for one love to enter a warm house after a walk in the brisk air! Still, how can you not love a month that promises us the beginning of something so wonderful as spring!

Happy March indeed!