Getting No Place Fast

It’s late afternoon and as I glance out the back window at the thermometer I see it is almost eighty degrees. This has been a strange year in central Oklahoma because we had snow on the ground less than a month ago.

Marilyn likes winter and having a fire in the fireplace. This past winter we burned nearly seven ricks of wood, not really for the heat but because a crackling flame warms the emotions and puts you in a mellow frame of mind.

Flowers have bloomed here since the last snow and today the irises, perhaps the last perennial of spring, began blooming. Since Marilyn feeds the birds, our backyard looks like an aviary. The wild ducks that lived here well into the summer last year have not returned. This is the first time in three years but I can hear ducks when I go outside so perhaps they are staying down the block.

The hummingbird vines and clematises are almost ready to bloom, the clematises cloaked in royal blue and the hummingbird vines in bursts of hundreds of trumpet-shaped flowers. This is a signal that it won’t be long before our hummingbirds reappear.

Last night, I sat out by the pool with my two pugs, Princess and Scooter. It was dark and I only had the faint glow of a fluorescent lamp for light. We weren’t alone. An ephemeral light danced across the surface the entire time we sat there. I could pass my hand through the light but I couldn’t touch it or make it disappear. When I went back to the house, I kept hearing a mechanical noise coming from the living room.

I decided that the dancing light was a spirit enjoying spring, rebirth, and the glorious warm night with me and the pugs. The mechanical whir is a different story. I finally dug out Princesses’ favorite motorized rat from beneath her blanket. Marilyn had turned it on earlier and that’s where it ended up. It was still running, but like me sometimes - getting no place fast.

Eric'sWeb