The weather we crave.

It was such a glorious day today, I hung out laundry. Yep. Spring is here. At least, my former neighbour, Mickey, said that he knew when it was spring because I was hanging out my wash. He died. I still think of him when I’m hanging laundry. His widow moved away and the pine trees we planted between the two houses have grown up and I can’t even see their place anymore, but I still remember when we first moved to the neighbourhood I was over there frequently, visiting with them on their back porch, or walking with them to the end of the street and back. People get old and die. I suppose there’s really nothing we can do about it.

I remember the day his wife came over and told me that Mickey was dying. It was her way of warning me that his time was short so it wouldn’t come as a surprise when he finally did breathe his last. Sadly, she never actually gave me the news when it was all over. I was never able to go to the funeral, which I really would have liked to have done. I don’t know why she did that. She also warned me in advance that she was selling her house and would be moving, but then never came over to say goodbye when the time came. She just sort of vanished. Strange.

Anyway, I hung out my wash and I thought about Mickey, listening to the birds singing and the bees buzzing. Right now I have the window cracked open and I can hear the stream that runs next to our yard rushing with winter melt. Later it will slow down to a trickle, but right now it’s quite audible. The river is high from thawing upstream, but I don’t expect a flood this year.

The students who are still in town have pulled their living room furniture onto their lawns and were basking in the sun, quaffing beer. Life is good.

|

<~~~ * ~~~>