Relative Something

*this* John W. Hays' take on things and experiences

Spring Things

with 4 comments

For the first time in months, I finally got my car washed yesterday. The once shiny blue car was an ugly gray mess of accumulated salty road spray. The temperature didn’t get above freezing yesterday, but it was sunny enough for the March sunshine to be effective at making it feel warmer than it really was. The line at the car wash was long and the wait was even longer, but it felt worth the pause to get it taken care of before the next blast of precipitation starts the accumulation all over again.

There is a real sense of impending change lingering in the air around our place now that the daily low temperature readings are no longer negative numbers and the high temperatures are headed above freezing for a couple of days. The higher sun angle and the later sunset hour are probably contributing the most to the feelings of transition that are upon us.

The horses are already showing signs of shedding their winter growth. Delilah seems to have more energy than ever. Unfortunately, she has started a pattern of barking at the sound of a neighbor’s dog 10-acres distant who sits in a kennel and “shouts” a lot. I’m grateful that Delilah has chosen to just sit on our hill and bark back at the dog, as opposed to run off in search of it.

We think Mozyr has resumed his misbehavior of peeing where he shouldn’t. The other night, he did it on our bed while we were right there, distracted by a video Cyndie had leaned forward to view on my computer. When she leaned back, her hand discovered the wet spot. What the heck!? Now I keep thinking I’m smelling urine in the air in several places, but I can never sniff out a location on surfaces. Even though I almost don’t want to see the truth, we are going to get one of the UV lights that will illuminate the spots where the cats have peed. Obviously, it is important for us to know, but at the same time, I really don’t want to discover what I expect will be the vast number of incidents.

I stopped by the hardware store on the way home yesterday to see if my lawn mower blades had been sharpened and ready for pickup. They weren’t, waylaid by the onslaught of problem snowblowers that had been brought in after the last mega-snowfall. I thought I was being smart to get my blades taken care of during the off-season, when they wouldn’t be inundated with lawnmowers needing similar attention, but it’s only logical that there isn’t really an “off-season” at a hardware store. At least I got them in at a time when I won’t be needing them if the wait takes longer than I expected.

This coming weekend, we move the clocks ahead one hour for the start of Daylight Saving Time, and in two weeks from today the vernal equinox arrives. Spring is here! That means only about two and half months left when we are at risk of getting bombed by a monster snow storm. Isn’t that encouraging!

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Written by johnwhays

March 6, 2014 at 7:00 am

4 Responses

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  1. If you don’t already know about it, Nature’s Miracle makes a cat-pee destroyer that works wonders. A bit pricy, but worth it. Make sure you get the one for cats … they make it for dogs, too.

    Rich's avatar

    Rich

    March 6, 2014 at 9:14 pm

    • Thank you, Rich. If Cyndie doesn’t already have it in stock, I will suggest we add it to the arsenal.

      johnwhays's avatar

      johnwhays

      March 6, 2014 at 10:41 pm

  2. Come to Guatemala!

    C´Ubuntu's avatar

    duniamo

    March 6, 2014 at 10:09 am

    • Yes! That is a brilliant plan, one which we hope to find a way to accomplish. Thank you!

      johnwhays's avatar

      johnwhays

      March 6, 2014 at 10:53 am


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