The first day of spring was Thursday, March 20. Birds were chirping, flowers were blooming, the grass was turning green and we were all outside in the fresh, lukewarm air letting off steam from our combination of cabin and spring fever . . .
Ha. In my dreams, maybe.
It rained. All. Day. Rain isn’t so bad. I can handle rain. Especially when most of the snow is already melted and the landscape is starting to look a little healthier and more plush. On the first day of spring it’s not my first choice in weather conditions, but it’s better than, say, snow.
My mother-in-law called that afternoon and said that they had been getting snow all day. They live about 35 miles away, so we clearly had just a few degrees difference between us because I hadn’t seen a flake of snow.
Guess what? It started snowing just after dark. Not light, fluffy flakes either, but heavy, wet clumps that disturbed power lines (ours) and piled up fast.
Happy spring to us!
As usual though, my five-year-old could be counted on to lighten up the evening.
The three other kids and I were upstairs in my office and Cody was downstairs by himself when the power abruptly went off. It stayed off for about two minutes. That probably doesn’t seem like as big of a deal to those of you who live in the city, but when you live in the country, there aren’t a lot of other light sources nearby, so dark is pretty much pitch black. Very scary for kids.
We went out in the hallway, where little bits of moonlight at least highlighted our outlines. The electricity came back on in a sudden burst after a few minutes. I was starting down the stairs to check on Cody when he flung open the door at the bottom of the steps and said, “Mom, We have a BIG problem.”
“What?” I asked, already knowing I was going to be hearing something chuckle-worthy next.
“The light switches are broken. They are turning on and off and no one is even touching them,” said Cody, in tones of deep concern, with a hint of smugness in being the one to tell me.
“It’s OK, it happened up here too. The power went out for a little bit,” I said.
“Well, I don’t like it when it gets dark like that. I was frightened,” declared my melodramatic one. Yes, he said frightened. These are the kinds of words he uses out of the blue — alternative words that people just don’t use very often or that aren’t used much in this century. I don’t know where he picks up such archaic language, but his use of it makes me giggle and his father sigh in the knowledge that this son just might turn out like my side of the family.
Everything was jumbled chaos after that, as I tried to get everyone settled and in bed. And then, of course, the power went off again. The kids all freaked out, putting off bed time yet another half hour, and the night finally ended at a very late hour with all four of them crowded in Cody’s room, a candle glowing on a high shelf as their night light.
I snuck in later to take the candle out, stopping for a moment to look at them, all curled up, warm and peaceful in their sleep. So sweet.
And when we woke up, there was a considerable amount of that thick snow on the ground, bending entire trees with its weight and obliterating all the signs of spring that had been.
Welcome spring, indeed.
