spring has sprung, grass is riz, and it's just in time, because people were going bonkers with the ice gripping the area and making all the bushes bow in obsequious and treacherous humility. now the flowers can come out, and then be refrozen in a vicious false spring ritual that is actually considered quite normal, and we can go back to business, which is usually plantin' tomaters at around this time of year. it was also leap day, and i didn't hear a word about it, except that a couple of days ago i heard a friend explain to a student that women were allowed to propose to men on this particular day, once every four years. to me, march 1st quickens the blood kind of like october 1st used to, it's such a busy time of year, time to get going as there's so much to do. i always felt like, in the north, around the beginning of october when you'd tear around, put antifreeze in the car, put plastic on the windows, cut wood, thermastrip the doorways, you'd be doing all this winter preparation stuff, but the real preparation would be mental- how would you make it through a long winter, indoors, high bills, less work, more time in the dark, at home, windows shut or plasticked off, fewer visitors, less going back & forth in general because it was so much trouble just getting the jackets, hats, mittens, snowboots, etc., off and on, and it caused gushers of snow every time you brought that stuff inside, not to mention the icicles melting off a beard or mustache. i say i feel the same way now, about spring, because, to me, i've lost all that extreme feeling about winter- winter is pretty much normal here, just a little cooler than fall, with the exception of this past february, which was a bit of an unusual chill at the end of an otherwise normal winter. winter here, you come and go like normal, you even work on the house if you want to, you can do just about anything, if you stay off ladders in the pouring rain. but it's summers you gotta watch out for- in summers, you have to go back and forth from aircon, which is sometimes extreme- aircon that is down to sixty or fifty in some places, to a steady 99/99 in the great outdoors, with the second 99 being the percent of humidity. we spend much of summer at 99/99, and though some people don't mind playing sand volleyball in it, i myself find it time to stay home, read a book, limit travel, etc., in short, just try to make it through the season. the big preparation is mental. and ya gotta tear around now, because pretty soon, you won't want to.