As we walked the high-altitude wind continued to work on the cloud shards, pushing them eastward and shredding them at the same time.  Five minutes later, the delicate brushstrokes were gone.

Cloud formations teach you to enjoy the moment.

The sun is shining, the temperature is in the high 70s, and the sounds of lawn mowers, leaf blowers, and trimmers fill the sultry air.  My neighbors are hard at work, and I should be, too.

It’s a perfect day to wash your car — so I did.  Time to get out the bucket and fill it with soapy water, find the Windex, and haul the old diapers out of the rag pile.  (Nothing works on a car like old cloth diapers.)

Unfortunately, as I was mid-wash I realized that my only functioning hose is much too short to rinse down the car after the washing.  So, I cleaned out the inside, scrubbed the dead bugs and road grit off the front bumper and headlights, then stopped by our neighborhood car wash for the finishing touches and a much needed vacuum treatment for the flooring.

My car is now as clean as a whistle, which means only one thing — rain tomorrow.

If you thought the movie Twister was an exaggeration, think again.  Dallas was hit by a huge storm earlier this week, and the footage of a tornado ripping through a truck stop and tossing trailers into the air like playing cards is pretty amazing stuff.

My sister Cathy has always been terrified of tornadoes.  Looking at this footage gives you a good understanding why.

It’s such a pleasure to see Nature’s bright spring colors through eyes that have grown so accustomed to the monochromatic winter world.  The vivid yellows not only brighten the landscape, they also can’t help but brighten your mood.

A few stray gray cardboard tubes, of the kind we associate with only one product, were on the side of the street, where they clearly had been tossed by excited kids fleeing from the scene.  A few scraps of white had been blown onto green lawns.  And then we came upon it, in all its glory — the season’s first teepee job, on a house in the neighborhood.

Budding teepee activity is as much a sign of spring as crocuses.  Even the most mischief-making teen doesn’t teepee anyone during the cold winter months.  But when the weather is newly warm and bored kids are hanging out on a weekend night with nothing else to do, you can be sure that somebody will find some toilet paper, and then teepeeing becomes inevitable.

You can also be sure that, later today, grumbling parents at the target house will be trying to figure out how to get the white strands off the highest tree branches.

I first heard the storm when it was well off to the west.  I had our windows open to enjoy some fresh evening air and was awakened by the distant growl of thunder.  As I lay in bed and saw the later lightning flashes, I counted “one-one thousand, two-one thousand” until I heard the thunder, as I had been taught to do as a child, to get a sense of how far away the storm was.  Soon enough the storm was directly upon us, with the brilliant lightning strobes followed instantaneously by ear-splitting cracks and the house lashed by heavy drops of rain.  As the thunderheads receded into the east I dozed off, only to be reawakened by another line of oncoming stormclouds with their bolts and booms.  By the time the second storm was over, it was time to get up for good and walk the dogs.

As we went outside into the freshly washed world, lightning was visible on the eastern horizon and the air still felt electrically charged.  We heard birds chirping, as they always do after a storm.  It made me think how miserable it must be to a bird during an early spring thunderstorm, high up in the trees and close to all the activity and noise, unshielded by any leafy canopy.  The birds must be thrilled when the storm passes and the peril is over.  It’s no wonder they sing so loudly afterward, to celebrate their survival and let their friends know they are still around.

Well, okay, maybe not the last part . . . but it was another fabulous day in Columbus, Ohio today.  The New Albany leisure path was packed tonight with cyclists, joggers, multiple-dogwalkers like me, and folks just enjoying a fine stroll in the perfect weather.

It usually happened on the first warm day of spring.  You would walk into your classroom through a landscape reeking of grass and growth, with flowers starting to bloom and birds chirping.  One of the kids in the class would raise the possibility with the teacher, and then other kids would join in.  Soon the pleas would build to a crescendo:  “Please, Miss Tibbles?  Please???  We promise we’ll be good!”  And then the teacher, who probably was dealing with a touch of spring fever herself, would relent, and we would go outside and sit on the asphalt of the playground to listen to the day’s lessons.  And, because we appreciated the gesture and didn’t want to get our nice teacher into trouble, we actually would try to be good.

I always had a soft spot for teachers who agreed to hold class outside.  Although I didn’t realize it at the time, it showed some real flexibility — and real confidence in their ability to control their class.  And when it happened, it made those rare spring days that much more special.  Who doesn’t look back fondly on the days when they got to have class outside?

As the snow falls, it covers the sharp edges and blunts the pointed corners.  The world becomes a smoother, more rotund place.  Plumpness is accentuated, and is oddly pleasing.

World Of Black And White

World Of Black And White (II)

World Of Black And White (III)

World Of Black And White (IV)

The effect is mesmerizing, as the mind whirs in its attempt to impose order on the chaos and seeks to find patterns and images in the randomness.  It’s like laying on your back on a sultry summer’s day, staring at clouds and seeing shapes and faces.

World Of Black And White

World Of Black And White (II)

World Of Black And White (III)

I like the gentle arcs the snowfall traced on these pine tree branches, leaving them looking like outstretched arms and hands waiting to catch more flakes drifting down from above.

World Of Black And White

World Of Black And White (II)

World Of Black And White