Downspout Route.

Weatherheads, yesterday it was spring, I swear. Today it is midwinter. Well, late winter. Let's not get crazy. It probably won't even go below freezing tonight. Still: If you're casting around for some thing—anything—to chew a morning through with, and what you've settled on is finally affixing the unfixed downspouts to the shed, then you'll want to engage in some modest layering. And, if you're sending screws through cedar siding, you'll want a pilot hole, but that is a story not even worth telling. Let's speak instead of the happy ease by which the downspouts got hung. The level and plumbness, depending. The downnness of the downspouts. The neat curve from the gutter back to the building, and then the easy trip to the ground. You may think you don't care about downspouts. You may think a thing like a downspout cannot be a thing of fixèd beauty. Fine. I do not need you to care. You step on outside in the same clothes you were wearing yesterday and see how far that gets you.

Tomorrow may be difficult. Fair warning. Tomorrow may not break fifty and it may be damp and misty and generally anti-dogwood. You will for sure and sure want a fire. But: do not despair. Not fully, anyway. The fancies want to give us back our seventies by Thursday and Friday, which makes a thing like a Tuesday seem a half-fair price to pay.

For right now, what we need around here is some music. I'll tell you that much. There's one last downspout to put up, and I don't think a quiet afternoon is going to be the way to go.