casings

A couple of years ago at this time of year, as I was walking over to production. I spied some tiny brown husks on the sidewalk. I couldn't figure out what they were. They didn't look like any kind of a shell, or anything that might have been a remnant from the previous fall. I looked into the tree branches above me, and saw that some buds were just beginning to swell and open. The outer shell casings that had protected the buds through the winter were starting to fall away, exposing the tender greenery inside. It was those casings that I had seen lying there on the concrete. Yesterday I was making that same walk when I noticed them again. I immediately knew what they were. It was a real sign of the spring season to come. The more I write this journal, the more excited I get when noticing some of these fairly subtle changes in the surrounding landscape.

I know that somewhere in the world there is someone rolling their eyes at this treatise on the inconsequential (someone besides Shawn, that is). I realize that I am a member of a family possessing a pretty broad streak of lunacy, hopefully of the amiable variety. It has always been a comfort to me to realize that at least I'm not the craziest person in my own family. Happy Birthday Bill!