No Marbles on This March 1

Back in the day when I was still giving assignments to high school students, this calendar date inspired some vivid thoughts.  

Images of green grass and mud and thawing dog deposits and marbles and all that "lovely" spring stuff found their way into the poems or short essays entitled "March 1." 

Well, today visible frozen doggie deposits rest upon rock hard snow or ice.  

What mud we've had is invisible as it lurks beneath the snow and ice.  

And, marble matches on the school playground?  I think that season might be late this year, much like baseball and track.  

It's March 1 and, again, we're getting a vicious blast of winter, much like the other March 1's I've been remembering of recent years. 

Three years ago, on this date, I was counting the hours leading up to a two-week escape from the snow with my first trip to Ireland.  

"When I return, this will all be gone," I assured myself, chuckling quietly as we drove out the driveway.

Well, when we drove into the driveway on my return, the same snow, along with a new layer greeted me.  

No green grass. No mud.  No marbles. Just snow.

Two years ago, Annie and I went to Palm Springs in late February, returning on the last day of the month.  

As I drove home from the airport at about 1 a.m., I arrived in the driveway just in time to miss driving in the upcoming blizzard. 

March 1 came, and it snowed the rest of the month.

I don't think it was quite so bad last year, but here we are again.  

The north wind is whipping some ice cold air out there, and it's gonna get worse.  

Eight inches of snow in the valleys by Monday, they say.  Well, that will add to the three or four inches we already have frozen to the ground.

No marbles for a while. 

Anyway, we'll weather this storm, and hope once again that this is the last blast of winter. And no worries for those paranoics who started complaining that all our forests will burn down this summer because we've had a pleasant winter.

On the Spokane news last night, they spent some time with the snow-depth experts, and those guys report that things are back to normal.  Plenty of snow, and, by gollee, we've got more coming.

I'm not complaining this morning----just still amazed that our Marches have become so wintry and that the little kids who are so anxious to play marbles have to wait.

Plus, I know the weather is a lot worse just east of us and farther east of us and south of us and southwest of us.  So, we don't have it so bad.

It's just that when we turn the calendar to March, our minds want to see some spring progress, but Mother Nature ain't cooperating. 

So, on this cold day and on tomorrow's cold day with snow and Monday's, I have a feeling some indoor stuff will get done.  Bill brought home another forest plan for editing, so I'll work on that and the ongoing project of cleaning up house clutter. 

At the end of the day, we'll be eating taco salads at my sisters' house and yelling out "YES" every time a ZAG scores a 3. We'll be hoping to yell that a lot and hoping the ZAGS finish off their season with a win over St. Mary's. 

Go ZAGS!  And, March, bring on the marbles!