Signs of Spring

Today is the first day of spring. The calendar says so. And as much as I would like to believe the calendar, the evidence presented to me by stepping out the front door is incontrovertable. There are piles of sludgy grey snow which have compacted themselves into random, bulletproof speedbumps . The ambient temperature has a nasty, vindictive streak. One has to have the nimble footsteps of a Sherpa to negotiate the sidewalk to school. Yep, still winter.

So I am scrabbling for the merest signs of spring. I'll admit, I'm reaching here, but I've got to have something, anything, to remind me that the day will come when I will not have to suit up for 10 minutes simply to put the garbage at the curb.

1. It is Easter weekend starting tomorrow. Easter is about as early as it gets this year. (For those of you who don't know, Easter Sunday is calculated by finding the first Sunday after the first full moon after the 21st of March. Not as complicated as it sounds.) Usually, Easter is the first really nice weekend of the year, but I doubt that will happen this time. I think the Easter Bunny will keep the hunt strictly indoors this time around. (Once, when Easter fell very late in April, my mother had the kids' egg hunt outside in her yard, with foil-wrapped chocolate eggs. The squirrels stole most of them. That was a very harsh Easter.)

2. I signed up the kids for summer camp today. The kids go to a drama and dance day camp the last week of July and the first week of August. Last year, the temperature hovered around 30°C for the entire two weeks, and Thing 2 went to bed at 6 pm every night for the first week. (If you do not have children, you cannot appreciate the desperate clamor to get your children signed up for their various summer activities before everything is full. It's like those English boarding schools where you have to put your child's name down as soon as you realize you have concieved them.) Another rite of spring.

3. The soles of my boots have begun to disengaged themselves from the tops, and I have to walk as if I am wearing flippers so that I don't trip over them. It is very graceful. Happens every year about this time. Of course, there are NO winter boots in any retail establishment north of the equator at this time of year, because their shelves are full of flip-flops.

4. Asparagus and rhubarb in the grocery store. Both very welcome relief from broccoli and grapefruit. I like asparagus okay; I think I really like it just because it is one of the first foods of spring, but I adore rhubarb, even the pale, pink hothouse version. The stuff we grow in our own backyard packs quite a whallop, let me tell you, and will rearrange your neurons. I love it, even if it does compromise my vision temporarily.

5. Toby gets lively. It must have to do with the amount of daylight or something, but right about now Toby rouses himself from his customary sloth, and starts tearing around the house as if he's had 8 double espressos, and has taken to leaping out at us as we pass his cagey hiding spot. Scares the shit out of me every time. We call it his "Jackie Chan Mode."

6. The little girls with the cornrows. At this time of year, all the kids who have more money than us went down south for March break. And most of them had their hair cornrowed. They'll keep it in for another week or so, until their head get itchy. Little girls don't look so bad with all-over cornrows, but grown white women look a lot like Q-Tips with that hairdo.

Now, if I could see some of the signs of spring like, you know, warmer temperatures, grass and sunshine, I'd be very happy. But I'll take what I can get.