Spring Has Sprung
by Scott Dalen
I will offer just a touch of nostalgia to begin. Think back about 10 years or so. On a Monday night you may be sitting watching WWF (yes I admit it, I watched it in college). The final match of the night was getting ready to start.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson came swaggering out to the ring. He would grab the microphone, strut around the ring a few times, then throw his head back and yell. "Finally The Rock has come back to (where ever it was that they were performing that night)." I saw him live once. It was "back to Minneapolis" that night, but I digress.
I do have a purpose for this brief discussion. It is to lead into this statement.
FINALLY SPRING HAS COME BACK TO IOWA!!!
Its been creeping up on us for the past few week, which has been great. But I'm going to call it official after yesterday.
Reason #1-I noticed yesterday, that the snow is officially gone from my yard. It was down to a small (and ever shrinking) drift between my house and the neighbors house. Basically, it was the small amount of area that is shaded by said neighbor's house, therefore lacking any direct (and snow melting) sunlight. But it's all gone now, leaving behind a ton of sticks to pick up and a yard full of raking to do. Oh joy.
Reason #2-I rode my bike for the first time yesterday. It was warm enough at lunch time, that I decided to pull out the bike and ride it over to the office (approximately a mile away). Two things made this difficult. One, I hadn't put any air in the tires and they were very low...VERY low. That creates a lot of drag while riding. Two, I haven't ridden since about September, so the muscles required were drastically out of practice. So by the time I walked into the office (which was really only about 6 or 7 minutes after leaving home) my legs felt very jellyish. After work, I headed 2 blocks to the gas station and put air in the tires. Its amazing how much easier it was to ride on the way home.
In addition to these two things, I also started a touch of yard work. There's a big access parking spot along the edge of my back yard that the city put in as they have to access something in the sewer system on occasion. The access area is filled with river rock so that they don't carve up someone's lawn (that someone being me in this case). Well, over the winter as the snow was piling up, they pulled a plow into that access area and managed to push a fair amount of the river rock out into my grass. So yesterday when I got home, the kids were playing in the backyard, and I thought I would take advantage and toss the rocks back where they were supposed to be. After about 10 minutes (when we got called in for supper) I realized that it was going way to slow and that a solid tined rake would work better. Only issue, I don't have one. So I called the in-laws and walked down (with my smaller midget) to get it.
That worked a lot faster. But once the rocks were back where they needed to be (approximately 10 minutes later) I thought that I had done enough for the night.
The last kicker which made yesterday a great day, the fact that I had nothing to do for school. The kids went to bed and I sat and read a novel for awhile. Then I popped in a movie and just relaxed for the evening.
It was great.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson came swaggering out to the ring. He would grab the microphone, strut around the ring a few times, then throw his head back and yell. "Finally The Rock has come back to (where ever it was that they were performing that night)." I saw him live once. It was "back to Minneapolis" that night, but I digress.
I do have a purpose for this brief discussion. It is to lead into this statement.
FINALLY SPRING HAS COME BACK TO IOWA!!!
Its been creeping up on us for the past few week, which has been great. But I'm going to call it official after yesterday.
Reason #1-I noticed yesterday, that the snow is officially gone from my yard. It was down to a small (and ever shrinking) drift between my house and the neighbors house. Basically, it was the small amount of area that is shaded by said neighbor's house, therefore lacking any direct (and snow melting) sunlight. But it's all gone now, leaving behind a ton of sticks to pick up and a yard full of raking to do. Oh joy.
Reason #2-I rode my bike for the first time yesterday. It was warm enough at lunch time, that I decided to pull out the bike and ride it over to the office (approximately a mile away). Two things made this difficult. One, I hadn't put any air in the tires and they were very low...VERY low. That creates a lot of drag while riding. Two, I haven't ridden since about September, so the muscles required were drastically out of practice. So by the time I walked into the office (which was really only about 6 or 7 minutes after leaving home) my legs felt very jellyish. After work, I headed 2 blocks to the gas station and put air in the tires. Its amazing how much easier it was to ride on the way home.
In addition to these two things, I also started a touch of yard work. There's a big access parking spot along the edge of my back yard that the city put in as they have to access something in the sewer system on occasion. The access area is filled with river rock so that they don't carve up someone's lawn (that someone being me in this case). Well, over the winter as the snow was piling up, they pulled a plow into that access area and managed to push a fair amount of the river rock out into my grass. So yesterday when I got home, the kids were playing in the backyard, and I thought I would take advantage and toss the rocks back where they were supposed to be. After about 10 minutes (when we got called in for supper) I realized that it was going way to slow and that a solid tined rake would work better. Only issue, I don't have one. So I called the in-laws and walked down (with my smaller midget) to get it.
That worked a lot faster. But once the rocks were back where they needed to be (approximately 10 minutes later) I thought that I had done enough for the night.
The last kicker which made yesterday a great day, the fact that I had nothing to do for school. The kids went to bed and I sat and read a novel for awhile. Then I popped in a movie and just relaxed for the evening.
It was great.
posted by Scott Dalen at 8:45 AM
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