Perpetual Ruminations

Monday

Getting in here a little later tonight, it's just a little after ten. I should have done this earlier but I was shot so I took a nap instead. Then, it was time for Rhonda to get home, and we spent a wonderful evening together sipping brandy and listening to our favorite songs. Now, it's time to get this entry written and then it's off to bed so we can get up early tomorrow and make the most of our two days off together.

It was another nice day, but a little cooler than yesterday and the wind picked up a bit this afternoon. Still, pretty nice; a beautiful spring day. We are suppose to get a little rain tonight with a slight chance of some snow, but not anything much, and I doubt it will even stay as it lands since the ground is beginning to warm now. I think if it did snow it would melt as fast as it hit the ground, but still, another sign that winter just does not want to release us from his frosty grip. But, hang on as he might, it's now a losing battle. The sun has risen too high in the sky and brings too much heat for old man winter to keep his icy grip on us. With each new day the sun drives him further away as spring slips in to fill the vacancy. By Wednesday they are saying we should see seventy degrees.

Not that the warm sun kills old man winter, he just retreats further and further towards the poles, waiting and watching for the time when the sun retreats so he can move back in and once again grasp us in his icy fingers and breath his frosty breath over the land. But, for now, he has retreated far to the north and is moving further northward with each new day. Tomorrow we will have sun and warmth, Wednesday even more, with showers moving in by nightfall. Rain will wash the last traces of winter form the land, drive the frost from the ground and bring blooming flowers and green grass back.

Spring is my favorite season, the end of the long cold winter, the renewal of life and the hope and warmth that it carries after the long, bleak and emptiness of winter. Of course, living most of my life in northern Minnesota, winter was just that, long, cold, and empty. Even so, we enjoyed the snow, spending long hours outside building snow forts, sliding and sledding, skiing and just looking at the beauty of the frost and the icicles. It wasn't my favorite season, but I didn't mind it, except for the extreme cold we would get. But even then it was time to stay inside around a blazing fire in the fireplace, enjoying family and sipping hot chocolate while plying games.

Now, I work a great deal of my day outside. I'm a security guard and even though our little shack is heated, it's not anything comfortable, and going in and out all day means I don't want it real warm inside. The time spent outside is cold, since it's difficult to do much with too many clothes on. The wind here in South Dakota seems to never stop, and the last winter was one of the coldest on record. Not anything like being a kid playing in the snow and then going in when I would get cold. Now it's not fun and I wait longingly for spring. Not that I don't enjoy winter at all, I like to get out and enjoy the snow and the beauty of the white landscape, I like to go ice fishing and just spending time outdoors, but it has to be warm enough to do these things, and the last few years have been too cold for much of anything. When the temperature barely reaches into the teens with a ten mile per hour wind or higher blowing, it's difficult to spend any time outside without suffering frostbite. Then, having to work out in it takes more away from wanting to go out and spend any more time in it than one has to. And, I should add, these were the more temperate days, we had more days that did not reach the teens, and often dropped below zero, with winds gusting into the fifties and even sixties most of the last four to five months.

That said, I'm ready for spring, and longing to get out camping, hiking, fishing and just enjoying a quiet fire on the patio again. I want to be able to go outside without having three layers of clothing on, and then still having to watch for frostbite. I want to drive with the windows down, not with a weeks supply of food and extra warm and dry clothing in the vehicle. I want to bask in the sun and feel the heat on my face, not wrap my face in a scarf to keep the skin from freezing and flaking off my cheeks, and I want to wade out in the lake and feel the cool water engulf my body, not walk out on the lake, frozen solid with three feet of ice, and have to huddle in a shelter to fish through a six inch hole.

I hope we can have a nice spring, an even better summer and then a long warm fall, and then, a mild, short winter.