Preemptive Retraction

 

Oh, I get a kick out of my post titles sometimes. I wrote a post recently titled Insult to Injury. It was an appropriate title since the post dealt with the Department of Transportation's lack of concern for the motoring public, strangling traffic with closed lanes yet no work being done for weeks at a time. When I reviewed it before publishing I realized that I was merely complaining. I was reminded of the rule that I had back in the day, when I used to write all the time: I could complain, but only if the gripe was presented as somehow interesting or amusing. This was just a bitch fest.

So how is the I 69 construction shaping up? A year later and they're still not finished. INDOT swears they'll be finished soon. They said that the joke around the office is that it'll be done by August 32nd. I'm sorry, but at two years behind schedule I don't find that amusing.

 

Gorgeous Days

 

We haven't had any. Well, about three nice days in the spring. Winter held on tenaciously then gave way immediately to summer with the warmest May on record. June was like July usually is and the heat shows no sign of relenting. One can only wonder what August will be like.

The good news is that we've had rain. The trees and fields are lush and green. Despite the heat it remains the glorious height of the year.

Keep it groovy.

 

Late Spring

 

It's the middle of April and winter just won't let go. We've had a few nice days but mostly it's been cold. Usually by this time the redbuds have bloomed and the trees are beginning to bud but all of the vegetative world is united in holding onto its winter sleep.

The snow was flying today, horizontal in a brutal wind. And yet, as bad as it was there was a change, a sign of hope. On the way back north in early afternoon I saw my first redbud tree, and after that I noticed a tree that was beginning to bud, and then another and another. I would have noticed if they had been budding on the way down. The awakening has begun! The plants know.