Taste of spring

Saturday, 5:42 pm

By Kate

Jan

21

2006

Today was a beautiful spring day. I’m not even using the term spring-like because, with the temperature reaching 60°, the air smelled sweet and the sun was truly warm. You couldn’t find a better example of spring than today. The roses are confused and so is the weeping cherry. Buds on each have swollen in the last couple of weeks. I don’t expect to see either burst into bloom in the next few days, but the unusually warm weather is having a noticeable effect on them.

But all good things must come to a screeching halt. At mid-afternoon the wind kicked into high gear again. Driving was dicey while I was out running errands. I’d reckon the strongest gusts were blasting in at around 40 mph. Enough to make driving difficult. It seems as if we have had a higher than usual number of wind events this winter.

But spring ends tonight with the new Canadian cold front. Thanks, Canada! Winter re-emerges for a few days. Not serious winter, by any means—cold enough to bundle up when going outside, but not cold enough to make anyone believe this is actually the latter part of January.

Cold enough to start the stove again, too. The last fire I lit was last weekend, I think. At this rate, my wood pile might just last through February and into March. I figured that with days reaching into the 50s every day, with a lot of sunshine beating down on the house and streaming in the windows, it made more sense to use the furnace. It hardly went on at all during the day and never went on at night. Huge wood savings and not very much gas use. That’s a deal!

While running around doing errands today, I did fill the car’s gas tank. Surprise! The cost of fuel spiked upward this week. We’re back in the $2.50 range for regular. Looking at what crude oil prices have done this week (almost back at the immediate post-Katrina levels), I wouldn’t be too surprised to see $3.00 regular in the next couple of weeks. Which makes me wonder if that is part of the reason why there has been a moderation in rhetoric concerning Iran in the past couple of days. Kind of an interesting cause and effect. How much sacrifice are Americans willing to engage in when it comes to the price of fuel and our wallets?