It's almost here

Spring finally looks to be almost around the corner...or at least what someone who spent the past 5 springs in Edmonton would term spring. It's always a matter of debate as to what one would classify as the first day(s) of spring. Some like to look to oversized rodents that have been disturbed from their sleep to predict when spring will arrive based upon the direction it looks when pulled from it's den. Seriously, how drunk was the first person to do this? Did they try it with a badger first and regret the choice before finally deciding to use a groundhog?

Others prefer to go by the vernal equinox, but come on, the scientifically determined point in time where the exact amount of daylight hours is half the hours in a day...where's the fun in that? At least the badger thing had drinking...or at least probably involves a lot if you standing around on some February morning to harass a rodent.

No I really prefer to look at spring in terms of when I start to become more active and emerge from my cocoon of an apartment...as a scruffy, kind of soft, more "insulated" version of myself. To me spring is when I finally feel that it is time to get back on the bike and start riding again, even if this means that the Gatorade in my bottles will freeze and I might experience hypothermia...yet again. At least this is a much more useful measure of spring for me, though it would be kind of nice if it coincided with green buds on trees rather than slowly thawing dog shit in the neighbours yard...and somehow that smells worse than all the cattle manure I grew up around.

So it's looking as though this Saturday will be the beginning of spring, or of a short stay for me in the emergency room while they gradually bring my body back up to temperature so that my internal organs can continue to function. Either way I am looking forward to it, I've spent a good bit of time inside this winter and it will be nice to breath in some fresh air, even though I will likely be coughing for hours after I get back (damn cold air).

Though the promise of warm weather also offers the possibility of other outdoor activities. One particularly fun one will be getting back into dodgeball. That always made for interesting Saturdays, with rides in the morning and dodgeball in the afternoon. Needless to say I wasn't doing all that much dodging in those games. Which also segue quite nicely to a conversation between Deirdre and her youngest sister the other night:

D: "So you do lots of exercise don't you?"
5 year-old: "Of course, I have to use up the old energy to make room for new energy."
D: "So what kind of exercise do you do, do you play games? Did you know that Chris plays dodgeball?"
5 year-old (totally serious after looking at me for a second): "Well obviously. You can tell he's been hit a few times."

That's right folks, a five year-old insulted me, right to my face...I tell you, I get no respect. And the worst part is that she's absolutely right about it too.