Signs of Spring

Anyone reading this blog for more than a month or so will know that I've been kvetching about the weather this past January and February. This weekend, though, gives me hope for the onset of spring. Besides the weather (two days of above-freezing temperatures!), there are other signs that Spring is imminent. Yesterday, a bunch of our seasonal workstaff came back to my principle worksite for a meeting concerning our upcoming season. I work nights, so I didn't see most of the attendees, but I did see the manager who has been boarding Fred and Ginger for the past three weeks of bone-chilling cold, and he will be bringing our beloved feline co-workers back sometime this week. We also had a lot of people pulling into the parking lot to check out our picturesque site, and I spent a good spell of time talking to a charming couple from Manhattan that had come up to the area on the train for some sightseeing. I had the good grace not to mention that I had been in Manhattan for the better part of the day- better to maintain the illusion of suburban tranquility. After giving them some restaurant recommendations, I told them to come back in a month, and earlier in the day, so they could have a nice tourist experience, because there's not of lot of "there here" in the off-season. Years ago, when I exchanged contact information with Radomir, he took one look at my 914 area code and quipped, "Oh, so you are a villager!"

Today, it was a positively balmy 46F (about 8C), and I could espy the shadows of a flock of birds on the dashboard of my car as I pulled out of my parking spot. This being the first day of Daylight Savings Time (did all of you dudes follow Tengrain's advice?), there was a good hour and a half of sunlight after I arrived at work. There was a gentleman who had parked in our lot to take photos. I did my regular start of shift inspection tour and found the site to be a muddy mire, but it was warm enough for me to take off my tuque and expose my glossy pate to the warmth of the sun for a while. Tomorrow, I'll probably indulge in my yearly ritual of shoveling show while wearing shorts, so I can break up some of the big snow piles in the neighborhood.

About an hour and a half ago, I found a car parked in our lot. I usually give people a "grace period" of ten or fifteen minutes before I give them the mildly accusatory, "Can I help you?" There was a middle-aged couple in the car, who turned out to be the parents of one of our seasonal employees, waiting for their daughter to come back from a workshop that she and some of our other employees had carpooled to. I joked that my usual line when I found couples in the parking lot was, "Get a hotel room!", which elicited a jocular, "We're too old for that!" response. I'll make sure to check out the parking lot later on to make sure they didn't get any ideas.

It is getting springlike, after all.