Thursday, April 08, 2010

Miserable old man




























This winter was the freezingest ever I've experienced in these United States. The bone-chilling cold all but froze my blood and often made me wonder why I was willingly subjecting myself to it. Days with a high of 32F felt like we were in the middle of a balmy summer, given that most days the highs were in the low 20s. December saw my electricity bill (and my home is all 'electric' as they say here) shoot up to the highest I'd ever paid. Luckily I didn't have a job (at the time) and wasn't even inclined to look for one since I was spending all my energy trying to warm up my insides. And the snow that got dumped here on a few occasions was not something to wish for. The federal government was closed for a week! The best purchase I ever made in my life was a pair of boots I bought in Seattle. If it wasn't for those I'd have been home-bound and hungry for large parts of the season!.

And then the spring - and everything was beautiful and not too hot and not too cold and everything was blooming - the magnolias, the cherry blossoms, the dogwoods and those whitish pink flowers on those trees I don't know the name of, hanging off of the branches like they're suspended in air, nothing ostensible connecting them to the trees. And no time to dwell on how gorgeous they are. By the time I remembered to take my camera out so I could snap some pictures, the miserable heat has started up and all the flowers are withering away. O'h spring, where art thou?

Anyway, I'll try to get a few pictures, albeit the flowers will have withered away by the time I get down to it. And now that I work, as far as I'm concerned, in one of the most fabulous, beautiful spots in DC, with flowering trees everywhere you look, I have no excuse.

Next installment on job and spring, if it hasn't sprung and leapt away by the time I look.

And just to warm up your blood, here's sunset over Puget Sound (Seattle).


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