Reflections on spring

So this was the first legitimately springy? spring-like? springish? day that we've had this year, and we took full advantage. I went for a nice run this afternoon, and had the fun of spotting a. a dog in its house, visible to the street because the door to the house was open with the screen door shut to let the breeze in, chewing happily on what appeared to be a man's dress shoe; and b. a limo pulling up in front of the house of one of Grace's friends. The mom and the younger daughter were playing in the yard, and I took a second as I was running by to yell, "Nice ride, Amy!" to the mom. She laughed, but didn't seem to have any connection to the limo, which I have to say, was legitimately a pretty nice ride.

I also spotted a couple of dead squirrels, one of whom (one of which?) was in our front yard. Which, yuck, and disposal of the one outside is a job that I immediately assigned to the man of the house.

After I picked up the kids from the babysitter and school, respectively (mama having spent the day writing pages 265-270 of That Dissertation), we went to the park for our first park outing of the year. I'd forgotten how delightful it is to sit on a bench in the warm sunshine and read while the kids play happily in the park. To digress only slightly, we're reading lots of fun things here these days - a book called "Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality" (or something like that) (short version: Jesus is much more worried about the poor than about gay sex), something called "God's Profits," which is a critical study of the moderately popular prosperity gospel movement (verdict: it's total crap. The movement, not the book), a biography of the Mitford sisters, cousins of Winston Churchill who were, respectively, a Nazi and friend of Hitler, a facist and friend of Hitler and wife of British facist leader Oswald Mosely, a Communist, an anti-Nazi, and a couple who were fairly apolitical. About half of them seem to have been writers, and they pop up a bit in the detective story I just finished called "Thrones and Dominions," in which Lord Peter and his wife Harriet settle happily into married life and conceive an heir.

We're wrapping up the Day of Nonofficial Spring with grilled chicken and gin and tonics, and Offical Warm Weather Drink.