Back, Forth.

Well, friends, if you don't like the weather, just give it a few minutes. We're slipping so quickly back and forth between spring and winter that it doesn't make any damn difference that I'm not doing the laundry. We've had that thick winter sunshine here in 27408 this afternoon, and something that almost feels like winter to go with it. Yesterday afternoon I sat on the porch and read. Tomorrow it's supposed to be gray and in the mid-forties. It's to the point where I'm not bothering with any forecast that runs out more than a couple of days, since the fancies seem to be getting it wrong with remarkable frequency. They say they want for us to have winter this coming week. I want that, too, but let's maybe throw a little bit of everything in the wash. Because I'm going to have to do the wash at some point. There are only so many pairs of socks.

In south-facing garden news, the pansies might be starting to come along. I always forget how long they sit, how long they're paused, until the light begins to drag itself up off the horizon again. But it looks as if they may be starting to bloom a little, may be making good on all that green they've been working on down at the base of the plants. I get itchy, worry that I should have bought more from the prison farm or more from the shiny nursery, but they tend to rally right around now and spend the rest of the time until the leaves come back out exploding up out of themselves.

I found some crocus poking up through the pine bark.

Next door, some little goddamn kid is out in the grass yelling and falling down. I can't figure out what he's saying, but it's the same thing, over and over, and then he falls down again. I think the phrase itself is what's knocking him over. And on the other side, Shafty's going into apoplectic shock and has been barking for nearly ninety minutes. His real name's Duffy. Phil's dog. I can't remember why I decided his name was Shafty. It's not locker-room humor or anything. Just some dumbass thing that came tumbling out of my head a few years ago.

Little kids shouting and dogs barking. What an outrage.