I presume you're suicidal this morning

Talk about a line. One of my friends sent me that one-liner note yesterday. I'm still laughing. Thank God.

Bill says it's gone beyond the state of getting mad or sad.

My sister, who just started her spring vacation says never, never in her lifetime does she remember a spring vacation like this. She refused to go outside yesterday other than to do her chores. I think she figured a sit-down strike would turn the tide.

My mother calls it a cold version of Purgatory. The venial and mortal sins of our family have definitely mounted up and turned our souls black; now we're paying with eternal damnable whiteness. Iz this the way we get purified?

Annie says to just make the most of it. She's learned to be positive and to cast off any notion of sin. After all, in her mind, the religions are the root causes of all the world's wars.

Willie says he doesn't care if the snow's three feet deep and rising when he comes home today. After, all two big NCAA games will greet him on the tube when he arrives. Maybe a dog or two and a family or two also.

Another friend wrote last night and noted that spring sure got over quickly. "Where's summer?" she asked---rhetorically so, I'm guessing. I must have been taking a nap when spring happened so I couldn't answer her first probing question.

Well, the good news is that the perpetual floating banner running across the television screen all afternoon yesterday, promising another big dump of 8 inches in the valleys and a foot in the mountains by 11 p.m. last night, DID NOT tell the truth.

I shoveled off the deck again yesterday, so I know we received only a skiff overnight. Now, for the folks down there in the Pullman banana belt, it may be a different story.

I slept a lot yesterday, determining in my pea brain that the more I slept the less I'd have to gripe and the less others would have to listen to me gripe.

So, I missed the climactic action of the movie called "Rocket Science" that Annie brought home. I was too busy doing my own rocket-science method of dissing winter.

I didn't miss or diss the Second Avenue pizza Annie brought home, though. Thank God for Carolyn and her staff for creating some cheesy sunshine for an otherwise 'nother day of winter.

I baked brownies too. So, when Willie comes home and takes up his NCAA tournament position on the couch, he'll have brownies for munchies. Annie's actually watching the tournament too cuz her bracket prognostication is turning out very well for the geocaching groupies' office pool. She's in second place, so far.

Bill tied a lot of flies yesterday. He thinks that some day the ice will disappear from the lakes and that the fish, who haven't broken their noses, will once again jump out of the water in search of goodies. So, Bill will be ready.

Lefty, my cute Arabian, turned one year old yesterday. While our neighbor Gary Finney visited with us next to the fence, Lefty got his nose caught on something sharp, and for a few brief moments, we had color. Splotches of red dotted the new-fallen snow. Maybe that guy with the art show down in Coeur d'Alene should have been hear to grab a piece of the winter canvas.

Oh, I almost forgot. Bill and I did take a trip yesterday---to the dump. That always helps my mood, especially when I get to sit and watch who's taking stuff off the free pile. Unfortunately, yesterday, folks were just in to loading up the bins.

Well, I guess that's enough for today. As I look out the west window, I see some pale blue sky hiding behind the mountain, acting like it would like to make an appearance, but feeling a bit shy.

Yes, Helen, it would have been easy to be suicidal yesterday, but I dug deep into my box of "feel- good-because-you're-so-damn-miserable" supplies, and I made it through.

A little sleep, a little pizza, a little family, and some chocolate, even a little concern from friends who really don't want to read your obituary just yet----the combination worked well for yesterday.

Now, if we're still telling the same story five days from now, maybe call on the guys in white jackets! They'll blend in so well with the terrain that maybe the neighbors won't even notice that they're carrying me away.