Scratch my itch

I know I'm about to drive my wife crazy, but I can't help it.  I've got to find something to do during the next few weeks until spring really decides to visit the Adirondacks and surrounding area. Where oh where is spring?

My sister lives in Waretown, New Jersey which is near the coast near Ocean City about an hour and a half ride south of the Newark airport - on a good day.  Every time I talk with her on the telephone, which is at least a couple of times a month, she very innocently says "Pat (my brother-in-law) is out playing golf, but he said to say hello." Every time she says that, I want to reach into the phone and just slap the you know what out of her. I don't care if Pat's off playing golf or robbing a bank.  I don't want to hear about it! Not at least until bank robbing season reaches Saratoga County!

What amazes me most is the difference in the temperatures and climate in the relatively short distance between here and her home.  It's about 275 miles yet my brother-in-law is playing golf at least ten and a half months of the year.  She told me last week that she had flowers coming up in her yard and had to go to Home Depot to get some weed control product to put in her flower beds.  What would I recommend?

ICE! Topped off with a few inches of snow left over from October.  That's what I would recommend.  Ice does a fantastic job.  Just come look at my yard.  I don't have a single weed coming up in any of my flower beds. Not one!

When I talked to her husband, he told me he was having a hard time deciding if he should walk or take a golf cart and ride when he played that day.  My decision was do I use my Jeep in four wheel drive or borrow my neighbor's snow mobile to go pick up my mail! I swear, if either one of them had used the word "beach" during our conversation, I would have...I don't know exactly, but I can assure you it wouldn't be legal.

BUT! Fear not, oh brave upstate New Yorkers, I promise you spring is coming. It will be here sometime between now and my birthday on September 5. I won't (can't) promise you how much sooner it will get here than my birthday, but chances are that it will.  And, I promise you that it will stay warm in Saratoga for at least - here goes a really wild prediction - two weeks!  How's that for commitment! Do I know my outdoors or what?

Seriously, it's time to get your hiking boots out and oiled up, get those picnic baskets out and ready to fill with potato salad and a good bottle of wine, get the kids' shorts out of the bottom drawer of their dressers and get yourself ready - Mother Nature is just about to wake up and show off.  She's just about ready to paint the hillsides with a thousand shades of green and sprinkle in some red, yellow, pink, blue and white flowers and she's just about ready to dust the wind with the fragrance of new life.  Be ready!  Don't miss it! 

I know winter is long in these parts, but trust me, it will be worth it when MaMa finally wakes up and does her thing.  Be ready to suck it all in and let her cleanse our mind, body and soul. Be ready to be reborn just like everything around you.  Lift your butt off the couch and Mother Nature will lift your spirits even higher.  And she'll scratch your itch! Enjoy it, you can bet I will.

See you outdoors!
You can reach Dick at rtotino@nycap.rr.com.