Bird seed, dust and grass are all signs of spring.

One of the most telltale signs of spring is the pollen dust covering the cars. We thought when we bought our carport that we would no longer have to concern ourselves with pollen dust. Wrong! Somehow those miniature creatures work their way onto anything outside. No sooner do you get the stuff cleaned off the car than it is back again. Maybe if I just put a coat of shellac over the dust, it will give my car that special look.

Another sign of spring is the flowers blooming. My mate spends hour after hour with her flowers and bushes trying to make everything as pretty as possible. Then whenshe asked her mate (me) if I noticed them I said, “No, are they blooming.” The look in her face said, “Why don’t you pay attention to them.”

In other places where I have lived spring was the time to get a special project done. It was a good time to build a deck, shed, or other outside structures because the weather was more comfortable to work in during the spring. The cold days of winter were slowly giving way to the hot days of summer during the transition the weather is perfect.I said other places because here in my newly adopted state of North Carolina that does not seem to be the case. In fact, when I brought the question of having no spring or fall in NC up at a recent meeting, I asked how long it has been like this in NC. I was surprised that these long time North Carolinians said it has always been like this. Around here it boils down to two seasons’ - summer and winter.

This is one of the few areas I have lived in (I have lived in over thirty areas) that you can actually watch the grass grow in the spring. My mate is disappointed in the spring weather cycles. The grass grows like crazy all week long and then when the weekend comes it rains which means she can’t cut it. By the time summer comes and we have the 100 degree days and no rain my mate doesn’t like the way the grass looks, but she enjoys not having to cut it. During the spring months there is so much grass that this year I have decided tosave it all, glue it together and sell it to the people who make Chia Pets. We don’t have enough grass to sell to any pro-football stadium for their turf.

Another spring time hobby is spring cleaning. I don’t mind the cleaning; I mind the fact that after the cleaning whenever I need to find something it is like going on a treasure hunt. This year there are a couple of new twists. First and foremost is that I am on a diet or as they call it now a new eating routine. To me this means that all the good snacks are now persona-non-grata in our house. Proof of that is what happened a few nights ago. I went to the kitchen for my 3 a.m. snack and instead of snacks I found a ten pound bag of bird seed. I realize that I have to change what I eat, but bird seed is going too far. As if to say these are the new treats, when I went to get a bottle of water, the shelf was filled with another bag of bird seed.

Years of living around the lake have proven that dust is a never ending problem that probably cannot be solved. I read that most of the dust in a newly weather sealed house is actually dead skin. Well I am shocked that I have any skin left on my body, because no matter how many times I dust the next day there is more in its place. I have decided to give up on dusting (my mate is laughing now as she has never seen me dust). Instead I am going to let the dust accumulate until it is three-quarters of an inch thick. Then I will spray it with glue. When it is dry it will be solidified and I can sell it for cheap shelving. Then when it is used and it collects dust no one will be able to see the new dust (my mate is laughing again because she has never seen me dust) . Until I get this new idea into production I guess we will have to continue to play catch-up with the dusting.

I just can’t wait ‘til next spring.