Loving February

(I just took some medicine for a migraine, and now I type on a laptop bouncing with caffeine jitters on my lap. It's kind of fun.)

My mother wrote in her weekly family newsletter last Tuesday that she loved February. Because the snow starts melting between storms, and there are holidays like groundhog day and valentine's day and presidents' day to distract her, and soon enough February is finally over and it's almost spring!

Tim and I have been mocking her (in private, of course) ever since. Walking Jonathan to school, we will point at a pile of ice and say, "Look at all that gray snow! I love February!" Or, "Only three weeks until March! I love February!"

Of course, this morning rain was falling instead of snow, and the gray detritus left by December's snow plows was shrinking into gray slush, and my nose didn't hurt so badly from the cold when I walked outside yesterday. Maybe my mother has a point. Maybe I can appreciate February because it will be over quickly. Because there is hope that winter will eventually will be over, but not so much hope for spring that the regular snowstorms and freezes are depressing, as they are March and April. And May. And June.

While we are speaking of the weather, our February weather is totally beating out the weather of those of you in Washington DC, and even S. California. That I can appreciate.