The snow is in retreat.

I repeat. The snow, it is in full retreat! These last two weeks have seen an amazing amount of snow melt and it is embarassingly thrilling. I mean, don't get me wrong, you could still go blind looking at the landscape on a cloudless day without sunglasses, but the cover is . . . thinner, and the edges of the snow fields are gettting farther and farther from roads and foundations and tree trunks. And, I can hardly believe this myself, and I check on it every day to make sure it's still there (in fact, I just went to the window to make sure it didn't disappear overnight), but there is GREEN GRASS growing against one corner of my house, the one that gets the most sunshine. Green grass, inches from the snow field. It's so promising! (Of course, the retreating snow is revealing all kinds of trash and detritus and general uglyness that had been beautifully covered for the last few months. Like these cars. Believe me, they looked much more . . . picturesque surrounded by green grass than they do by rotten snow and mud. But lets focus on the positive, hmmm?)

On Saturday I drove down to Boise because the weather report was promising temperatures approaching 70 degrees, and lo it was wondrous. As I wound through the canyon, following the snow-melt swollen river down from the mountains, I honestly started grinning like a fool, alone in my car, when green growing things replaced black and rotten snow on the side of the highway. I might just have let out a little squeal when I saw buttercups (!!!) flowering between the boulders. And then . . . in Boise . . . I wore FLIP FLOPS! All day long! And I wasn't cold at all! In fact, I was a little warm! And then yesterday? When I left the spa? FOURTY SEVEN DEGREES. I drove home with the windows down. I may have almost cried a little. Living here has definitely given me an appreciation for the little things, like grass, and unconfined toes.

Thanks for all your congratulations on passing the bar. I really appreciate it. It's strangely comforting to know there are people out there (even people I've never met!) thinking positive thoughts for me. Not to be all gooey or anything.