The buttercups are blooming all over. The cold mornings are slowly giving away to warmer weather. The grass is growing and getting greener as it pushes out through the dead debris of winter. We’re resetting clocks all over the house. Spring is almost here.
Contrary to how you may have felt recently, winter will soon be leaving us. With its demise we are seeing more of the sun and feeling it too. With spring comes all the things most of us love. Flowers, birds, fresh air, waterborne activities and baseball. Yup. Who could argue against any of that? I’ve heard that there are people who prefer the cold, but I’m not sure I’ve met any of those folks. Of course, we all love the family Holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas but who wouldn’t love to have those during warmer months? Just once, maybe? I could go for that.
There are drawbacks to the warmer weather. With the pretty flowers and fresh grass comes the insects. People who visit the South in the summertime usually have a comment or two about our robust insect population. I grew up in the Arkansas delta, near the Mississippi River and I can attest to the existence of mosquitos (pronounced “Skeeters”) that will “swoop down and snatch you up” or “tear yore a** up” as they come down on you “like a cloud”. Likewise, our bird population has its share of undesirable types. It’s not all Cardinals and Bluebirds around here. If you see multiple hawk-like forms circling overhead, they are less likely to be actual hawks and likely to be a “kettle” of vultures (pronounced “buzzards”). They’re called a “kettle” when a group is flying around, a “committee” when they are resting together in trees or on the ground, and a “wake” when they are feeding together. Just remember that the next time you have to go around two, or three, of them when they’re feeding on the road. Be respectful. They’re eating buffet at the “wake”.
I can’t think of anything negative with the coming of waterborne activities, unless the fact that you might want to watch out for Cottonmouth Snakes and Snapping Turtles if the water is green, or brown. Y’all at the swimming pool just have to watch out for the aforementioned “skeeters”. Everybody loves “goin swimmin” even if it just means playing in waist deep water while the sun fries your skin to a crisp. Ain’t nothing better when the temperature hits about two thousand degrees around July and August.
And baseball? We all love something about baseball. We’re ‘Merican ain’t we? For the sixth time Opening Day will begin March 18th in Tokyo, Japan. The World Champion Dodgers will face the Cubs at the Tokyo Dome, kicking the entire world off to another season of baseball. Hot dogs, stadium beer, seventh inning stretches and rooting for your team are all things that we can smell, taste and hear that proves to us that Winter is, indeed, out!
Let’s play ball!
God bless Y’all!
Rolling Stones 