The promise of Spring

This past Winter has felt longer, colder, and more frozen than most.

Today’s rain turned to a wind-and-thunder storm, and then it broke for a moment, shining a beam down on the rooftop terrace, and arcing a promise of Spring into the sky like a beacon from Zeus.

All will be well.

Bidden or unbidden, Spring is coming.

yes, i read the almanac

Thanks to Nate for sending along the picture of the lunar elcipse from the other side; pretty, isn't it? While David and i were driving home Saturday evening (after a much-needed trip to Sam's Club), I pointed out the emerging crescent. The boys and David and I watched the eclipse finish its path across the moon as we made our way up the mountain. My face pressed against the cool glass of the passenger window, I confessed: "The full moon in March is called the Worm moon. I meant to look it up, but I didn't." David asked me how it was that i knew the eclipse was coming up, and that it was a full moon that night. "Uh, i read it in the Farmer's Almanac?" I felt like a dork, but it's true -- the almanac provides a lot of my random farm-based information, and it's not really more sophisticated than that. I'm a weird-information junkie, and i like knowing stuff about the world in which i live; the two come together to produce a fascination of named things. In the case of the names of the full moon, i found a list online. For the latest on what is going on, i tend to visit more authorative sources. and while i was visiting, i found what i'd like to get Tiger for his birthday in July. my mind has an endless capacity for useless information.

Cool things this weekend:

• On Saturday morning we went out and rode Nitro (the Freesian). Everyone got a turn except David, who was doing the lead-around-the-field thing. We meant to ride longer and share more, but Nitro was slipping in the still-wet grass, so it was a brief outing. Satisfying though. Note: Nitro is one heck of a lot of horse. At 17 hands and over a ton-and-a-half, it seriously changed my approach to riding when i was in the saddle. He got a little frisky, jumping and swishing a bit, and it was noticable in a way it simply isn't in smaller horses. I felt small and insignificant, but in a nice way.
• After riding, we went to town and looked at furniture. We need a new dining table and the boys need height-appropriate dressers. We were more of the get-ideas-and-go-home-and-make-it mindset, and i think we might have figured out a solution to the boys' organization at long last (yes, it involves the woodshop and not a credit card).
• David introduced us to the age-old board game Careers and we had a ball. The game he has is so old that all the little score sheets are used up and have been erased and re-erased into onion skin. I hopped on the computer and made a new set, which we tested on Sunday night while the clothes finished washing and the boys fell asleep. David won, but i was only a hunderd dollars from victory. [A hunnerd!]
• The Sam's trip did my heart good in a way that i simply find difficult to describe. We have twelve pounds of rice and a big honking case of Charmin. We are beginning the Pantry Stock, and such are the things that calm me, especially as i haven't found a contract yet. (Yes, they keep saying there are tons of things out there for me. None of them comes through, though. It's that overeducated, overqualified thing again.)
• We had dinner on Friday night with Michael, which was a treat for us all. As he came in, Tiger looked at him and said "Did i mention that I think of you as a brother?" Michael was telling him yes, and that it was cool when Tiger then informed him that he could now join him in playing The Mime Game.
• Sunday was mostly calm and quiet, with house chores and movies and tree removal (when the axe broke, David got to show off the chainsaw before literally man-handling the tree into submission. My own personal superhero.)

this morning was a comedy of near-errors, but that's another story for another time. Hopefully, the day is on track once again.