Keeping a Sharp Eye Out

 March always feels like a Godsend. All of the cold, gray darkness of February gives way to warmth, green and extended daylight. Spring training is in full swing. You find yourself trying on your shorts and t-shirts for the first time since last fall, hoping they all still fit. And for us, the arrival of March starts the countdown until Maine. 109 days and counting.

This year our time in Maine will be very different for two reasons. The first is the absence of Lucy. The second will be the presence of Silas. God gives and takes away.

I’m not looking forward to arriving at the lake without sweet Lucy. For me she was the one who made the place so magical. Everything we do, everywhere we go, every time we launch out in a kayak or paddle board we will feel the void of her absence.

But this sadness will be more than offset by the arrival of our grandson for his first ever trip to Maine, his introduction to the lake. He will be a little over a year old when he arrives. He will be newly graced with the ability to walk, probably babbling on and on with enough discernible words to make it adorable. We will fill the cloud with a barrage of pictures of his every encounter with Maine in such a volume that an entire new data center will be required to process it all. I will feel no guilt.

But there’s a lot to do before Maine. One set of our kids are planning a London trip and they need us to take care of our GrandPup Frisco. Can’t wait for that sweet dog to get here. I’ve planned a birthday trip to Tybee Island for the first week of April. Our other set of kids hope to be able to come down and stay with us at least part of the time. Then there’s firefly season at Congaree. Kaitlin will need some help that week since Jon will be working late hours every night at the park. That’s what Pam and I are for! The month of May is celebration month, lots of birthdays and our 42nd wedding anniversary.

Of course, it’s March the 8th. I am slowly but surely getting sucked in to a false sense of security by the evil machinations of winter and its diabolical agent—February. I know full well that there might be one more blind side storm afoot, that worst of all meteorological events—the late March snow storm. You all know what I’m talking about. There’s two weeks of sunny and 75 and just about the time you’re about to break out the sunscreen, BAMM!!!!

 I’m keeping a sharp eye out for trouble on the horizon via the long range forecasts. I am a little nervous at the recent appearance of a high temperature on Tuesday, March the 17th of 45 degrees with a low of 28. Nothing good happens under such circumstances. But that’s nine days from now, in weather circles also known as an eternity, or put another way, nine days is the over/under on the lifespan of the latest Supreme Leader of Iran.

I remain cautiously optimistic.