My Sunday Feeling

Maybe it's true.  Maybe the worst is over.

Yesterday was gorgeous with a high of around 70. This time last week it was sleeting as the officials at the Little Rock Marathon were trying to get folks off the course.  What an awful experience that was.

I don't run in races any more due to my back.  But I have run in many of them in my day.  I've run in the cold.  I've run in rain and I've run in high wind.  I have shown up at races and thought "this is going to be tough."

Never have I arrived at a race and thought "This is a mistake."  It was sprinkling when I got there, the wind was howling and the temperature was degrading it seemed by the minute.  Little Rock was under a Winter Storm Warning at the time.  

I was just taking pictures and I was dressed appropriately.  Still after a couple of hours, I couldn't feel the camera.  The wet wind cut through the layers under my wind jacket.  I decided about then to start heading home.  

I was about halfway to the house when a car pulled up.  Window comes down.  Young guy in the neighborhood named Colin.

"Do you think we'll ever play golf again?" he asked.

I paused to watch the hypothermia victims as they headed for the downhill leg on Lookout.  Most of them looked beyond miserable.  

"God, I don't know," I said. "I just don't know."

The latest ice storm hit us around 6 that evening.  And I thought to myself that I couldn't remember a more brutal winter.  From December to March, Central Arkansas averaged at least one winter storm a month. The low last Monday was 14 with a wind chill of zero.

But yesterday was nice.  A bunch of us planted trees along Kavanaugh Boulevard.  Most people appreciate that sort of thing.  There are exceptions to every rule of course.  You can't please everybody.  

But it was nice to be outside doing stuff.  Runners and bikers were everywhere.  Men and women out pushing strollers.  Now that's more like it.

And today Daylight Savings Time begins.  Thank God. As I have said before, I hate Standard Time.  I need more time to sit on the swing, cook on the grill, hit golf balls and otherwise stay outside in the light.  If ever I had Seasonal Affective Disorder it was last Sunday night as I sat and listened to the sleet hit the ceiling and windows.  

My neighbor is from Texas.  He was getting out for a bike ride for the first time in months.

"Do you think Winter is over?" he asked. "Really over?"  

"God I hope so,"I replied. "I hope so."

Because I can't remember a worse Winter. Man, I really need me some Spring.